High School Malec (Alternative Universe)
by nomundanes
Summary: Alec and Magnus' first meeting takes place at one of Magnus' brilliant high school parties in this alternative universe. This fan fiction contains several chapters, mainly revolving around Malec, some about Sizzy and a little about Clace.
1. Chapter 1

**1. Magnus' Annual Summer-Is-Over Party**

Once Alec could finally join his friends at lunch, they were already discussing something secretively. Most of his friends were a year younger than him, but his sister had always been one of his best friends even if they were complete opposites, and so he had just started hanging out with her friends as well. And of course there was Jace. Jace had started out at his grade, and they had been best friends for so long, Alec almost forgot sometimes that he hadn't always known Jace. But Jace had had so much going on in his life with moving between foster homes almost every other month, that at some point he had failed too many classes to keep up. Now he was in the same grade as the rest of them, Clary, Simon and Isabelle.

Seeing Jace with Clary now, as he entered the cafeteria, he couldn't help but feel a bit warm inside, as Jace reached out to wipe off a crump off Clary's cheek. Jace had always been in love with Clary, but things had been complicated, since Clary's parents had been Jace's on and off again foster parents. Now, he was finally in a group home, although Alec suspected Jace hated it there, he also knew that Jace enjoyed being able to show how much he cared for Clary. The only ones who didn't know were Clary's mom and stepdad, and Alec could understand why they would keep it a secret from them, at least for now. They most likely still wouldn't accept it.

"Alec!" Isabelle cheered as she noticed her brother approaching. "We were just discussing something, maybe you can help…" she started, but Simon, as usual, had to interrupt her.

"Behold, she's about to ask you something offensively gay," he said. Izzy shoved at Simon with irritation.

"It's not offensive, but you know, Alec might possess a little bit of gaydar. I'm telling these guys that Magnus Bane, he falls somewhere on the sexuality spectrum, right? Surely, no one with that much glitter in his hair is straight," she said matter-of-factly. Alec looked around, and they were all staring at him waiting for an answer.

"Magnus who?" Alec said, although he knew exactly whom they were talking about. The guy was a legend at the school just because of his parties and his bold sense of fashion. Alec had never actually met and talked to the guy. He'd always just ignored him, thinking he was a bit intimidating.

"You guys, leave Alec alone, alright," Jace shot Isabelle a warning look, because she looked as if she was about to make a joke about Alec's fake obliviousness.

"I thought he was dating that girl, what was her name? I think she was a foreign student," Clary offered to deflect the attention, which Alec appreciated. He never really liked being the center of attention, that's why he always hung out with Jace or Isabelle, because they were always the center and so no one would notice him while they were around.

"Alec?" Isabelle wrinkled her nose.

"No, Magnus. Magnus was dating a girl, I'm sure of it," Clary was searching her mind for a name.

"Camilla?" Simon narrowed his eyes.

"Camille!" Clary exclaimed.

"Yeah, she was only here for a year, while her dad was working in the states. I think she moved back to France," Simon shrugged.

"Too bad, she was kind of a babe," Jace recalled, and Clary slapped him lightly on the shoulder, but he just grinned back at her. "Unless you're into redheads of course."

"Why are you talking about Magnus?" Alec wondered, while taking a bite of his apple.

"He's having his annual summer-is-over party and Izzy got hold of an invitation," Simon said with fake astonishment. Isabelle shot Simon a look that could kill.

"I was thinking we should go? Jace wants to go too, right?" she looked hopefully at her friend.

"Why would someone celebrate that summer is over though?" Simon interrupted again.

"I love parties," Jace said with his mouth full.

"Since when?" Simon snorted.

"Since ever. When have I not been up for a party?"

"You weren't up for my LAN party?" Simon accused.

"That wasn't a party at all, and you tricked me into believing so!"

"How did I trick you?" Simon was using his high-pitched voice, as he always did when he was defending himself, but knew his arguments were weak.

"By calling it a party,"

"That's what they are called, a LAN party!" Simon threw his arms up in frustration. Isabelle rolled her eyes, and Clary was about to object and probably tell them all how much fun Simon's so-called LAN parties were, but she thought better of it and sank back into her seat.

"A party sounds fun," Alec shrugged.

"The LAN party was months ago, and you never RSVPed" Simon said, and Alec just gave him one of his shut-up-for-a-second-Simon looks. "Fine, we'll go to a party. Maybe this year I'll be one of the cool kids," he suggested, but Isabelle just shook her head at him.

"No, Simon."

…

Alec and Simon were waiting for Isabelle to be ready for them to go to the party of the year. Alec didn't know why, but it was always awkward when Simon and him were alone together. They never had anything to talk about, and honestly he was only part of the group because of Clary, and now somewhat because of Izzy. Alec didn't know why Izzy was letting him on like she was. Simon was not her type at all, but she kept him around like a little pet boy toy. Alec shuddered at his own thoughts.

"Are you a bit cold?" Simon asked mockingly, noticing the shiver.

"No, I'm good," said Alec, before snapping out of his thoughts.

"Relax, I wasn't gonna offer you my sweater,"

"Such a gentleman," Alec said wryly.

"I mean, it just wouldn't fit on you. It would probably break at the seams over those biceps of yours,"

"What are you doing?" Alec looked at him sideways with annoyance.

"I was trying to make conversation. I don't suppose you wanna talk about _Dungeons and Dragons_, do you?" Simon asked. Alec didn't answer; he just looked at Simon, waiting for him to stop. Simon had this thing where he could go on forever talking about nothing in particular. "That's what I thought. And that's why I was talking about your biceps instead," he said, just as Isabelle appeared in the doorway with an odd expression.

"Gee, Simon! Are you hitting on my brother?" she asked, and Alec detected a bit of disgust in her tone. If he didn't know better he would have felt a stab from such comment, but he knew the disgust was meant for Simon, because although she was allowed to flirt around with others, she would be disappointed if he ever did the same.

"Is that what you're wearing?" Alec wondered, when he got a look at his sister. The "dress" (she would probably call it a dress in a minute) was extremely short and it was only just long enough to cover up her buttocks. "I hope that goes with a skirt?"

"No, it's a dress," she said as if it was obvious. Simon slapped Alec's upper arm with the back of his hand, while never taking his eyes off Izzy.

"It's a dress, Alec. Gee, don't you know anything about fashion?" Simon said. Alec scowled at the other boy, and Simon now looked up and down Alec. "Right, clearly not."

"You're one to talk," Alec snorted. Alec was wearing a black T-shirt and a pair of jeans, there was nothing unfashionable about his choice of wardrobe, it was more or less timeless.

"When you two losers are done arguing about your lack of fashion, I'm ready to go to a party."

"Absolutely not. Please, just put on a pair of shorts at least?" Alec begged. Izzy leaned on one heel and put a hand to one of her hips as an expression of her annoyance. "Hot pants then?"

"Okay, but only because you knew the words "hot pants"," she sighed and went back into her room. Now it was Simon's turn to look displeased with Alec.

"What? You seriously wanted her to go like that? Think of all the older guys who would be staring at her all night," Alec whispered, knowing that the inevitable situation of guys hitting on his sister would occur no matter what.

"You're probably right. Why didn't I think of that?"

"You don't have any younger sisters, do you?" Alec knew the answer. Simon only had two older sisters. He had never had to be protective, mostly because as far as he'd understood Simon's sisters were just as dorky as he was. There was no chance that they would have ever dressed like his rebellious little sister did.

…

The three of them, Simon, Isabelle and Alec, were meeting Jace and Clary outside of Magnus' house. It was a huge house. Everyone knew that Magnus was loaded. Him and his mother had gotten a lot of insurance money, when his dad had died. But also, Magnus' mother most likely had a well-paid job, which required a lot of travelling.

The party was already pretty loud and there were people everywhere, when they arrived. Isabelle had told them that only socially inept people came to parties on time. They had been discussing whether to drink before, or just find some alcohol at the party. They had decided on the latter, since none of them had fake IDs, and since Alec's father had had a drinking problem they didn't have booze at home. Clary's mom didn't believe in alcohol, and Jace of course weren't allowed anything at the group home. The conversation had ended with Isabelle asking Simon whether he could get any of his mom's, but since she only had peach snaps, they decided to just hope for better booze at the party. And they had been right to do so, because just as they entered the house people were handing out drinks from the kitchen table. Even the drinks, Alec noticed, had glitter in them. There were pink drinks with glitter floating around in there and blue drinks with glitter as well. Alec took one off the table and bottomed it, suddenly feeling very out of place in this crowded house. The cocktail was sweet and he was fairly sure that the glitter was now sticking to his teeth and his lips. The others looked at him for a moment, before deciding to get a drink of their own, seeing that Alec didn't object to it. Although, Jace did make a comment on why they didn't have any beer.

"What, are you not confident enough to have a pink cocktail?" Simon said, already dipping into the drink and coming up with a glittered smile. Jace grinned at him.

"You know what, I'll take one. Since you make it looked so masculine, Lewis," Jace said and took a glass.

"What happened to 'men do not consume pink beverages'?" Clary asked with her best Jace imitation.

"I don't recall ever saying that," he said, but his amusement gave away his lie.

"The other day, I offered you some of my mom's homemade lemonade?" Even Clary looked amused now.

"You have that affect on me Clarissa Fray, you make me want to try new things," he was flirting now.

"Or you could have just taken one of the blue drinks instead?" Simon noted. They ignored him, and it didn't take the two of them long before they disappeared into the crowd. Only in big crowds like these had Alec noticed how lonely he was after Jace and Clary had started being an item. They were always running off together, which was fine, but it always left him alone with Simon and Isabelle, and to be honest it was always only a matter of minutes before the two of them would start arguing about some insignificant issue. Even if he didn't like the attention, he felt forgotten.

Surprisingly, Isabelle split at the first sight of some jock she'd been flirting around with a couple of times, leaving Simon behind. Simon didn't look displeased, as Alec had thought he would. They were just standing side by side awkwardly, each with a glittery drink in hand, looking around at the crowd. Alec liked people watching. It was unbelievable what someone could know about others simply from being a wallflower. You would never even have to talk to them. Simon spotted someone at the other side of the room.

"Oh my God, is that Erik? How did he even get invited to a party like this?" Simon said, and Alec followed his gaze. Sure enough, that was Erik sitting in a Fatboy with a girl in his lap. Erik was one of the other losers from Simon's "band". Alec could not stand the guy.

"I'm gonna go say hi. Are you coming?"

"I'm good." Alec decided he would rather sit alone with a glittery drink, than go hear Erik talk arrogantly about how his last poetry class went and how his teacher was just in love with him. Erik was one of those pretentious hipsters. The school had a lot of hipsters, but Erik was by far the worst.

Just as Alec thought he'd found a good hiding spot, with no one paying attention to him, he felt the pull of someone's eyes on him. He scanned the room, and not far away his eyes met another pair of eyes set in a handsome foreign face that was all cheekbones and angles in the dark of the room only lit by colored lamps. Alec wasn't just staring into a normal set of eyes, he was staring at someone wearing Halloween contacts – it could be snake contacts or maybe even cat's eyes. The eyes moved closer to him, and only when they were right in front of him, did he remember that he was staring and looked down at his boots.

"Hi," Magnus said. Alec had forgotten which Asian country Magnus' mother was from, but he thought it might be Indonesia or something close to it. Alec had never noticed just how amazing Magnus' features were before, but then again, he had never been standing this close to him before either.

"Uhm… Hi," Alec found that he could speak. When he looked back up at the odd eyes he met a brilliant smirk.

"Alexander, right?" Magnus asked.

"Yeah," Alec's vocabulary went down by at least fifty percent. "Alec. Everyone calls me Alec."

"Isabelle's brother. I see a bit of resemblance, but at the same time none at all."

"Oh, is that… is that a bad thing?" Alec wondered, knowing that his sister was the beautiful one of the two.

Why did he want to talk to Alec? He was probably just trying to talk to everyone at his party, but Alec had thought he was perfectly safe standing by himself. Instead he had been easy prey for conversation.

"No, I don't think so. I noticed you were staring. Isabelle would never let anyone know she was staring," Magnus looked amused.

"I was staring? I'm sorry, I…"

"It's fine, Alec. I enjoy a good staring contest," he said and Alec looked back up into his eyes.

"You're wearing contacts?" Alec found that he was able to somewhat keep a conversation going, if only by stating the obvious.

"No, these are my natural eyes," Magnus said in all seriousness. Alec just gazed at him. "I'm kidding. They are contacts. Pretty cool, right?"

"Halloween isn't for another three months," Alec said, hoping his dry tone wouldn't offend the other boy. But instead of being offended he burst out laughing.

"Can I get you another drink, Alec?" he offered, when his outburst was over. Alec looked at the glittery drink in his hand and held it up.

"I think I have enough glitter, thank you."

Amusement ran across Magnus' face, and Alec wondered if he'd said something funny.

"I hide the good stuff away from everyone, because they always just expect me to serve them glitter, and I really don't want to let down my crowd," he said with a secretive smile.

…

It was a warm late summer's night, and so half the party was outside. Clary always enjoyed being outdoors, she always had and so of course she and Jace would find their way to the party outside. A couple of kids had started a small bonfire in what looked like it was meant for just that – a bonfire. One of the kids from Alec's class was playing a guitar and it was as if the outside party was completely different from the one inside. That's when she saw her brother and understood how it was different – they were all stoned and so naturally everything seemed to be going at a slower pace outside. Sebastian was puffing on a bong. Jace squeezed Clary's shoulder once, knowing that she was counting till ten inside her head. She could not believe how dumb her mom and Luke would have to be to not notice Sebastian getting stoned every weekend. He was the otherwise perfect brother and son, but she didn't like him when he was stoned.

"Clarissa!" Sebastian marveled. "You're here! Guys, this is my little sister," he said to no one in particular.

"Sebastian, what are you doing? Mom will freak,"

"Relax. She doesn't have to know. Jace, you have to try this," he held out the bong for Jace, who looked slightly amused. He'd always looked up to his foster brother, and even at times when Clary did not find him the least bit funny Jace had a way of thinking Sebastian's every move was hilarious. It was like they were constantly sharing inside jokes. A few times Sebastian had even gotten Jace into trouble, and of course no one ever suspected Sebastian to be involved. He was a perfectly good boy, Clary thought bitterly even though she loved him dearly - just not like this.

"I'm good, Sebastian," Jace grinned, turned his face and buried it in Clary's hair. "Let's go back inside," he whispered so only she could hear it. But Sebastian's eyes narrowed.

"Gross, that's our sister you're most likely whispering disturbing plans to," Sebastian coughed slightly as an effect of the pot. Jace's shoulders tightened. Sebastian was such a jackass when he was stoned. He didn't think. When he wasn't high everything he did was well-planned and structured, but once he started smoking all that went out of the window, and the filter that usually told him that he was about to say something hurtful and stupid was gone. Clary scowled at her brother and grabbed Jace's hand.

"Come on, Jace. We're leaving," she said and turned away from the stoner crowd.

…

Alec was starting to feel the alcohol in between his eyes, as Magnus kept pouring him yet another glass of rum and coke. He didn't really like the taste of alcohol, but he was just too nervous to not sip at the beverage constantly. They weren't alone, but it felt like they were isolated from the rest of the crowd somehow, because no one was paying attention to them.

"You don't have to keep me company, I'm sure I can find Izzy somewhere in the crowd of jocks," Alec said. His vocabulary had come back after a few drinks, but he was still not sure whether that was a good thing or a bad thing.

"I don't mind. You're not exactly bad company, Alec. Besides, I don't really enjoy these parties anymore,"

"Then why do you keep doing it?"

"For different reasons. I don't like authorities. I like to see people be happy. And tonight it was mostly because I got these new really cool contacts, and I didn't want to wait for Halloween to wear them," he smiled brilliantly.

"Oh… that's a good reason," Alec didn't know why he hadn't expected him to give him a real answer.

"What do you do for fun, Alexander?" Magnus asked. Alec always felt odd when people called him Alexander. It was something his mother did when she was being serious about something. "I don't suppose you go to parties for a good time, you seem rather bored?" Magnus noticed the hesitation.

"No, that's not it. I'm not bored," the words rushed out of Alec, and he felt slightly panicked by the idea of someone like Magnus thinking he was boring to him. Why was this boy so difficult to be around? Was it because he seemed extremely confident in his own nature? Or the fact that he wasn't exactly the worst looking person Alec had met – far from it.

"Relax. I was bored as well, before I found a handsome blue eyed boy to talk to, that is."

Alec blushed and looked down into his drink. It was half-empty. Alec didn't know what to do with a compliment, so he just decided to skip the part where he replied to this compliment.

"I like archery," Alec shrugged.

"Really? I did not expect that. Are you any good?" Magnus bit his lower lip absentmindedly, and it made Alec's heart jump for some reason.

"I'm alright, I guess," Alec admitted. He had brought Jace to do target archery one time, and he'd been awful at it, but he'd seemed to enjoy watching Alec while he was hitting the target almost every time.

…

Jace opened the door to a room, and they found it empty. He dragged Clary into the room along with him, his long fingers folded around hers, and closed the door behind them.

"What are we doing?" she wondered sweetly.

"Sneaking around?" he offered. Clary crossed her arms with amusement. This was the first time they were actually alone together, since he'd moved out. They couldn't be alone at his house, because he had a roommate, and they couldn't be alone at her house, because her mother somehow had ears everywhere in the house and she would know. He drew her closer by her elbows and she could feel his breath against her forehead. He was so tall, but as he leaned down she was on her toes reaching up to touch his lips with hers. Excitement went through her body and she unfolded her arms, folded her fingers around his neck and drew him further down onto her mouth. His hands were almost lifting her up from the small of her back. He backed up, never letting go of her lips, and sat down on the bed he knew was there. Clary's heart skipped a beat, when he took his leather jacket off and threw it on the floor. It was all suddenly very real. She'd wanted to be alone with him like this for so long, but it hadn't been possible considering their circumstances, so she'd just kept pushing the thought away, but now…

He took hold of her hips, and almost lifted her on to his lap so he could kiss her again. His kisses were soft and tender, not at all what she was used to. His kisses had always been urgent and passionate, because they had to be when you never knew when someone would come in to interrupt the moment. But it was just the two of them now, and the party downstairs just kept going almost as if it was on a whole other planet. It all seemed distant and far away. When he leaned back to get a look at her, she saw the opportunity to speak.

"Whose room are we in?" she wondered, as she looked around. The walls were all a deep purple color, and the furniture was romantic and elegant.

"It's probably Magnus'," Jace looked toward the closet, and the floor right in front of it was covered in glitter, which even the darkness couldn't hide.

"You don't think he'll come in here?" she asked, while playing with the buttons on his shirt. She had missed "accidently" walking in to his room and him being shirtless. Now he was looking at her with amusement, as if he knew something she didn't. "What?"

"I saw him right before we went upstairs," Jace said.

"What, and the two of you have an understanding of some sort?"

"No, he didn't see us, because he was in deep conversation with Alec," he smirked. Clary felt nervous on behalf of Alec. She had sort of come to like Alec more after he came out to the entire group. It was a sort of respect, and he even seemed to have accepted Clary more as well. He wasn't rude to her anymore. She supposed suppressing your thoughts and feelings could make someone a bit bitter and snappy.

"Should we go save him? Magnus seems a bit crazy and odd at times," she said, but Jace just laughed.

"I think Alec can take care of himself. But your concern for my best friend is endearing and frankly a bit sexy," he leaned in to kiss her again, this time with more passion.

…

"Alec!" It was Simon with his impeccable timing, Alec thought sarcastically as he heard his name being called out through the crowd. He looked up and saw the other boy approaching. Alec cursed under his breath. He was just starting to enjoy himself in Magnus' company. "Alec," he said again.

"What?" Alec sighed.

"I couldn't find anyone, and I just couldn't take any more of drunken Erik reciting his own poem for what seemed like the sixth time!" Simon looked drunk himself, and he only now noticed that Alec wasn't alone. "Magnus?"

Magnus looked from Simon to Alec, probably waiting for someone to introduce Simon.

"I'm sorry, do I know you?" Magnus looked a bit uncertain.

"No, you don't. I'm Simon, Alec's friend," Simon took Magnus' hand and shook it. Alec exhaled when he noticed that Magnus wasn't horrified by this encounter, but rather amused by drunken Simon.

"Well, any friend of Alec is a friend of mine, I suppose," Magnus hid his grin well. It was like a light bulb went on inside Simon's mind and he whistled through his teeth.

"Don't do that," Alec warned.

"Okay," Simon balanced on his heels. "I'll just go find Clary and Jace."

"You probably shouldn't. I saw them go upstairs together, they didn't look like they wanted company," Alec said and Simon's mouth formed an O, but no words came out of it for a change.

"I hope they are not in my room. I guess we'll find out when they come down," Magnus' smirk was like that of a brilliant villain. Alec looked at Simon, and Simon looked just as confused as he felt.

"How?"

"Let's just say I laid out a trap for anyone who tries to shag in my bed,"

"Should I be worried? That's my best friend up there, I would rather she didn't break anything," Simon said.

"It's nothing like that. I just planted a lot of glitter under the covers in my bed. You have no idea how difficult it is to get rid of evidence, when the evidence is glitter," Magnus grinned. Alec couldn't help but let go of a short laugh, and Simon looked at him in surprise.

"You're drunk. How did you get Alec drunk?" Simon frowned.

"I think I saw Izzy go outside a moment ago," Alec deflected the attention and Simon fell for it, and headed outside. When he turned to look at Magnus he was smiling charmingly at Alec. "He's in love with my sister. It will probably never happen."

"Really? I think they'd make a cute couple, Seamus and Isabelle, it has a nice sound to it," Magnus said confidently and Alec sniggered.

"It's Simon," he said without knowing why he was even trying to help Simon, when he wasn't even present.

"Oh, well that just sounds terrible then. They are no match! Simon? Really? I thought I heard him say Seamus," Magnus was joking, and Alec couldn't help but respond with a huge smile. No one ever made him smile this much. If someone didn't come to his rescue soon his cheeks might get permanent soreness from all that smiling.

As if on cue Clary and Jace came towards them, but they were no rescue at all. Instead Alec had to bite the inside of his cheeks to not burst out laughing, when he saw them. Though their clothes looked fine, a bit tousled, but it was their hair that gave them away – Clary's hot red hair was glittering in the dark in a way it hadn't before. Jace's golden locks were a bit subtler, but there were still traces of glitter on his face.

"We thought, since Magnus makes it look so appealing, we'd try this new fashion statement," Jace said. Clary's cheeks matched the color of her hair. Alec didn't think he'd ever seen her this flushed before. "I think it's pretty obvious to everyone that I look quite dashing," he added, and Clary tried to hide her grin.

"I still think I wear it better," Magnus said, hiding his amusement well.

"Agree to disagree," Jace winked.

"I think we'll go say goodbye to Simon and Izzy," Clary said, while looking around.

"Okay, I'll be right with you," said Alec. The two of them disappeared into the crowd, and Alec turned to Magnus again. He looked smug. "I wouldn't be so self-satisfied if I were you. Jace has a way of making the revenge to a stunt like that twice as bad."

"Oh yeah? Is that why you're smiling so much?" Magnus noticed. Alec tried to hide his grin in his hand. "You can't hide that smile, Alec, it lights up your entire face."

"I should probably go find them. Clary is my ride home," Alec said, trying to ignore Magnus' charms, but somewhat failing at it.

"Okay. But can I ask you a question?"

"Sure," Alec looked up at Magnus' contacts. Magnus took a step closer.

"Do you have a boyfriend, Alec?" he asked and Alec froze, his heart was beating faster as it always was when people talked about his sexuality.

"How did you know I was…?" He couldn't even say the word out loud.

"I didn't, you just told me." Magnus' eyes were warm and gentle and fixed on Alec.

"Oh. Well, I don't… have a boyfriend, that is," Alec ran his hand through his hair as he usually did when he was nervous.

"Interesting," Magnus' lip quirked up at one corner.


	2. Chapter 2

**2. Chairman Meow - Not Your Ideal Chaperone**

Jace and Clary was having a heated discussion when Alec found them in the schoolyard after his last period. They always had these silly passionate quarrels about even sillier matters. Most likely the argument was about whether Jace loved Clary more or the other way around. Alec knew it was something like that, because he vomited a bit in his mouth when he looked at them. They didn't even notice him until he was standing right next to them.

"Please tell Clary that it is not embarrassing that Magnus knows we snuggled in his bed at the party?" Jace looked at his best friend.

"Snuggled? Really? That's all you did?" Alec said with disbelief, and not really wanting to hear the answer to his own question. Jace offered him a smirk and turned back to look at Clary.

"Magnus doesn't seem like someone who would kiss-and-tell," Jace said.

Alec really wished Jace would have used a different expression, but he didn't say anything, because then Jace would know instantly that Alec had not been able to stop thinking about Magnus since the party. No one had ever made him feel less out of place at a party with that many people.

"Besides, I'm still wearing some of that glitter with great pride, because I am _not_ embarrassed about what we did in Magnus' room," Jace's eyes shone when he looked at Clary.

After that Alec pretty much ignored them the rest of the way home as they continued to argue in a loving way. Jace's new home was close to Alec's house and so they always walked home together. He hadn't bothered to ask them where Isabelle and Simon were, because he didn't really find the time to care at the moment.

He found the answer he wasn't looking for when he entered the house. Isabelle was busy whisking some unidentifiable substance in a huge bowl with flour on her nose, while Simon sat on the kitchen table watching her with interest and sharing tales of the latest comic book he'd read.

"Where's mom?" Alec wondered.

"She's at a meeting tonight. She won't be home until late, so I'm making pancakes," Izzy cheered.

"Are pancakes supposed to be green?" Alec wrinkled his nose, looking at the liquid in the bowl.

"It's spinach. It's supposed to be dinner pancakes," she said.

"You mean tortilla?"

"She means tortilla," Simon confirmed. Izzy looked down into her bowl.

"I think it needs more flour," she decided, probably because most of the flour she'd already used was on her shirt and in her face. Only Isabelle, he thought, could wear an apron but get most of the batter on her shirt instead, and still look elegant as if she was shooting some kind of commercial for home-cooked meals.

"I'm going upstairs. I'll just order a pizza, or have some noodles," Alec sighed.

"You're not going to join us?" Izzy's eyes were pleading. Alec thought about making a joke on not wanting to ruin their date, but the look in Izzy's eyes changed his mind. It was odd really, how she would be alone with all the hot guys at school and never care about it, but with someone as dorky as Simon she suddenly looked insecure and nervous. She was the exact opposite of all the girls Alec knew, and he felt proud to call that fierce, yet loving, little lady his sister.

"No, I don't think so."

"We'll probably order a pizza anyway, you might as well join us," Simon shrugged. "Oh! And also…" Simon didn't get to finish what he was about to say, before Izzy elbowed him. Simon yelped.

"Right. I meant to tell you…"

"What is it?" Alec demanded with alarm. Perhaps something had happened to their dad – he was out of town for the rest of the week.

"Magnus called," she said.

"W-what?"

"He called the house," she explained.

"Why would he call the house?" Alec was in momentary shock.

"I guess you didn't give him your phone number," Izzy accused. "Good thing I got his," she pulled out a piece of paper from her apron. Alec took it, still a bit dumbfounded.

"What do I do with it?"

"Call him, silly."

"Or text him," Simon suggested. "Guys like to text."

Isabelle was about to object, but Alec broke her off.

"I'll be in my room," he said and rushed upstairs.

…

Isabelle stared at the door where her brother had disappeared, before she put down the bowl of batter.

"Do you think he'll call him?" she asked. Simon loved this side of her – the side of Izzy that rarely showed, and usually this kind of concern was directed towards her brother.

"Yeah. Didn't you see the look on his face?"

"He looked a bit shocked?" Izzy narrowed her eyebrows.

"You know how he is," Simon said, not realizing how exactly he knew how Alec was, because he'd never really thought about the fact that Alec was someone he knew well. "He doesn't expect anyone to notice him and so when someone does it astonishes him."

Isabelle was now smiling at him. She always only smiled when it reached her eyes, that way you would know it wasn't a fake smile.

"What?" Simon didn't know what he'd done to deserve that kind of smile. She didn't reply, but bit her lip as if she was thinking about something. "You know, you have some flour on your nose," Simon noted.

"Really? Does it look good on me?"

"I think it's your color, although…" he said, before putting his finger into the green batter and planting a line of it across each of her cheeks. She was trying not to laugh. "Better!" He looked admiringly at his work as if he was an artist trying to find the right angle of the object. She quickly shoved her fingers into the batter and ran it across his forehead before he could avoid her, and he shivered from the coldness of it against his warm face. Izzy laughed, and Simon forgot the sticky cold feeling against his forehead for a moment. "Isabelle, I…" he didn't get to finish his sentence, before Izzy was on her toes, reaching up to kiss him. For a short moment he froze in shock, but then he leaned into the kiss.

"I'm not. Really. Hungry," she whispered in between kisses.

"Me neither," he lied in a breathless tone against her mouth. She leaned back, and took his hand so she could pull him off the kitchen table. Simon stumbled to his feet and followed her. "Where are we going?"

"To my room," she said as if it had been obvious. Simon didn't think it was obvious. He liked Isabelle, but he didn't want to be one of the guys she made out with and then dumped them afterwards. He had thought she only kept to flirting with him, because he meant something more to her than the other guys. Maybe he had been stupid to even think so, but at least he had hoped that's how it was. As far as he knew, she hadn't been making pancakes with any other guys, and she definitely hadn't been listening to other guys' rants about their favorite manga or video games.

Izzy shut the door behind them and shoved Simon onto the bed with determination, before climbing onto his lap and kissing him heavily. They had kissed before, but they had never made out like this, and even though he loved the feeling of Isabelle's body on top of his, the feel of her hair between his fingers and the softness of her skin as her nose grazed his when she kissed him, he still had to tear away to make sense of her sudden decision to make out with him. His head was rushing and he needed to straighten his mind, that's when she started to slide her warm hands up under his shirt. His hands caught at hers.

"Wow, Izzy, just wait a second," he said out of breath, and she looked as if he'd just slapped her. She pulled her hands back and crossed her arms in a manner that made her look self-conscious, but surely Isabelle wasn't self-conscious, Simon thought. "It's just that we've never made out like this before, I'm not sure what it means," he said.

"Does it have to mean something?" she asked. Of course it had to mean something, Simon thought, because he was falling for her and being her make out buddy would just complicate his feelings for her even further.

"I really like you, like a lot."

"I know," she shrugged.

"You know? So you're just using me?" he inquired. Isabelle bit her lip as a way of controlling her nervousness, Simon figured.

"No, Simon. I don't know. I'm not used to feeling like this," she said in a low voice.

"Feeling like what?" he demanded. He knew he was pushing her, but he felt like she owed it to him somehow. She hesitated.

"You make me nervous. I don't really know what to do with boys other than make out with them. I'm not used to guys who want to talk to me or hang out," she admitted. Simon thought the answer more than fulfilled his question. He hadn't actually expected her to be honest with him about it.

"Well, I'll say it's their loss if they don't want to talk to you, because I really love talking to you, Isabelle," he stated, and rested his forehead against hers.

"I know. I guess I just don't know what to do with that."

"I could teach you?"

"I would like that," she whispered back. "Now, can we make out?"

"Yes please. That apron has been driving me wild all afternoon," he said, and she beamed with pleasure as he undid the knot that held the apron around her neck.

…

Alec stared at the piece of paper with a single phone number written on it. He'd laid it on his desk, while contemplating whether to call Magnus or text him, and what to say to him when he did decide which way would be better. Magnus had called him, so maybe he preferred a call? But of course there was the fact that he hadn't had Alec's cell phone number, and so he'd had to call him rather than text. It seemed like a never-ending situation of over thinking. He thought over possible things to say and conversations to have with Magnus. He could start out by questioning why Magnus had called him in the first place, and leave it to Magnus to move on from there.

With sweaty palms he dialed the number and decided to call Magnus. It rang twice before someone picked it up.

"_Hello?_" The voice said.

"Magnus?" Alec asked. Silence. "It's Alec."

"_Alec!_" the voice cheered on the other end of the line.

"Isabelle said you called?" he started as he'd planned.

"_I just wanted to see if you had turned into an extreme partygoer yet, in which case I would take full credit of course,_" Magnus said, sounding as if he was otherwise occupied while talking on the phone. Maybe he had his TV on. If Alec hadn't been so nervous he might have been able to laugh at the charming joke.

"Oh… I wouldn't go that far yet. But you'll be glad to know that Jace is still wearing glitter."

"_That might be because he can't get it off with just a few showers. As I said, it's a pain in the ass to get rid of, that's why I just stopped trying,_" he said.

"So is that why you called me?"

"_To hear about Jace and the glitter? Certainly not,_" he sounded bored just thinking about the topic.

"To see if I've become an avid partygoer?"

"_While that would interest me a great deal more than Jace's glittering butt, I just called to see if you were doing anything tonight? I have the house all to myself, since my mother is at yet another meeting. I just ordered a family sized pizza,_" he said in an inviting tone. Alec smiled to himself and sat down on his bed.

"My mom is at a meeting as well. I was going to order a pizza myself, since Isabelle is cooking for her and Simon."

"_Ah, so she gave him a chance after all?_" Magnus referred to Alec's comment from the party about the two of them never happening.

"I don't know. They're always flirting, nothing ever happens though," Alec shrugged even though he knew it didn't matter, when Magnus couldn't see him anyway.

"_Well, it's perfect then. You don't have to order pizza. I have enough to feed an entire family._"

Alec thought about it for a moment. He was curious to see Magnus again. He had a way of making Alec curious, although he wasn't normally the curious type.

"Okay. I'll come right over," he finally said, while holding his breath.

"_Brilliant_."

Alec stared at the phone for a second after hanging up. He was going to a boy's house. Not just any boy's house – the legendary Magnus Bane's house – alone. He quickly changed his black T-shirt with a gray one after rubbing his sweaty palms in the previous. He looked in the mirror and his hair looked as ruffled as it always did. Maybe Isabelle could help him, if he could get her away from Simon for a second. He walked to her door and swung it open.

"Izzy, could you…" he was caught off guard midsentence by the scene in front of him. Simon was sitting on the edge of the bed with his shirt off, Izzy sat across his lap also without a shirt on and they were making out heavily. Alec closed the door again quickly, but the image of Simon's hands all over his sister was now clouding his mind.

"Alec!" Isabelle exclaimed just as the door had shut.

"I'm going out," he yelled back at her through the closed door.

"Okay."

He didn't need to do his hair anyway. Magnus would notice instantly that he'd put effort into his look before going to see him. It was just pizza, Alec thought to himself.

Alec had passed the pizza delivery as he drove up the driveway to Magnus' house. He placed his bike in front of the garage, before walking up to the front door feeling awkward.

Magnus looked relaxed when he opened the door. He was wearing loose worn-out jeans and a T-shirt with the words "I work out" printed with animal print across his chest. He didn't even have to put effort into his look and he still looked stunning.

"Alexander!" he cheered. "Perfect timing!"

"I know. I saw the pizza delivery on the way up," he said nervously.

"You look pale?" Magnus noticed.

"Remember when I said that Simon and Isabelle would never happen? Well, I just saw it happen," Alec said. Magnus grinned.

"You poor thing. You better come inside and tell me all about," he replied with amusement.

Inside Alec was met by a gray tabby cat, it greeted him by walking between his legs. Magnus raised an eyebrow.

"He doesn't normally like people," he mused.

Alec sat down to pet the cat, and it welcomed his stroking hand with a purr. When he looked up, Magnus' smile was warm. It didn't surprise him that Magnus was a cat person. The cat was probably what had occupied him, while on the phone, Alec imagined.

"We go way back," Alec joked and Magnus flashed a more amused smile. Somehow Alec's confidence went up with the cat's approval, it seemed that he was able to make jokes in Magnus' presence now.

After an hour with Magnus, Alec was able to ignore the fact that Magnus' T-shirt was just tight enough to show the outline of his abs, or the perfect ruffle of his hair, and just go with the conversation. He found that apparently Magnus' mother was at the same meeting as his own mother, and he had never even known they worked together.

The two of them had now moved into the living room after finishing up eating pizza, and the cat, apparently called Chairman Meow, was sprawled across Alec's lap while they were talking.

"I can't believe I walked in on my sister and Simon having sex," Alec shook at the memory, when Magnus brought it up again.

"I don't know what you've heard, but I'm pretty sure sex requires a little more than the shirts to be off," Magnus said with amusement.

"It's not funny. What if I had walked in five minutes later, what would I have found then?"

"You're thinking too much, Alec."

"That's what I do, I over think everything," he admitted without knowing why. Magnus' expression was full of compassion, when his fingers suddenly brushed Alec's arm casually, and Alec froze by the gesture. Alec stared up into Magnus' brown eyes intently, as the soft tingling of his touch sent flutters through his stomach. Even when they were sitting down Magnus seemed to be an inch or so taller than him. Alec leaned closer to indicate that Magnus could take the next step and close the distance, and so he did. His soft and warm lips crashed into Alec's with such force that Alec almost fell back, causing Chairman Meow to wake up and jump down off the couch. Magnus' strong hands caught him around his back, steadying him, letting him know that he shouldn't mind the cat. Alec reached up around Magnus' neck to hold him down, afraid he would stop the kiss. His stomach twisted in on itself as a rush of feelings went through his body; feelings he had never felt before and he wondered why he had never kissed anyone before this moment, if this was how it felt like to be kissed. When Magnus broke off the kiss, the two of them had to catch their breaths.

"Was that your first kiss?" Magnus wondered.

"Yes," Alec replied in a whisper, hoping it hadn't been too obvious.

"And how did you like it?"

Instead of replying, he leaned back up to kiss Magnus, who fell backwards on the couch in surprise of Alec's compulsion, dragging Alec with him until they were sprawled across the couch. Alec's hands brushed down Magnus' upper body and lingered at the edge of his T-shirt. His hands were trembling as he felt Magnus' skin connect with the tip of his fingers. Magnus held Alec's face in both hands as he kissed him back violently. Alec's heart was in his throat, when Magnus rolled them around so that Alec's back was pressed against the couch and the other boy started kissing his neck. His body was heavy against Alec's, and the warmth of another person this close to him sent flutters through his stomach. The touch of Magnus' lips to the base of Alec's neck, where the skin seemed to be extra sensitive, made him grasp at the other boy's arms trying to steady the trembling that ran through his body. Alec had just started kissing Magnus' neck the same way, when he brushed Alec's arms, as a gentle indication for them to stop. Alec was breathing hard, when he looked up into Magnus' perfect brown eyes.

"I suppose that means it was alright?" Magnus bit his lower lip. Alec's chest was rising and falling quickly.

"Yeah, pretty mediocre for a first kiss," Alec joked, a bit out of breath. The other boy brushed Alec's lips with his thumb, not really helping the situation of his shuddering breath and racing heart. "I should probably go home."

"It is a school night," Magnus noted with a sigh, and they both sat up again. Alec felt the urge to touch Magnus again, but he resisted because he knew he wouldn't be able to stop himself from whatever might happen after a kiss like that. "Can I call you? I would like to take you on a real date, if you want? One that doesn't include the Chairman or pizza," Magnus asked.

"I don't know…" he said, and found some satisfaction from Magnus' nervous eyes. So far he hadn't gotten the impression that Magnus ever got nervous. "Chairman makes a pretty good chaperone," Alec finished his sentence, and Magnus smiled with relief.

"I must say, for a while there I thought he wanted you all to himself. Lucky for me he fell asleep."

Alec grinned, because he couldn't help himself. All the way home he couldn't help himself, and he felt like a silly teenager for the first time in ever. Even when he entered the house and Izzy appeared to be waiting for him at the dinner table, he couldn't rid himself from smiling.

"Are you being smug about what you saw? Honestly Alec, just get it out, yell at me or make the lame jokes only you can make, just get it out of the system so we can move on," she said.

"I'm not gonna make any jokes, Izzy. Let's just not talk about it, okay?" he said, and she wrinkled her nose.

"What?" she looked confused. Alec went to the fridge to get a bottle of water, while he was aware that Izzy was studying his every move, probably waiting for him to yell at her. "We didn't have sex, if that's what you're worried about," she added.

"God, Iz! I don't wanna know," he said, and somehow even this conversation couldn't get his mind off Magnus' perfect lips against his own or the touch of his fingertips brushing Magnus' smooth skin. When he turned back to look at her, she was gaping at him suddenly. "What?"

"You went to Magnus' house, didn't you? Oh my God, Alec. Tell me everything!" she exclaimed in her best teenage girl squeak, as if they were BFFs or even worse – twin sisters. Now he wasn't smiling so much anymore.

"No."

"'No' you didn't go to his house, or 'no' you won't tell me everything about it?"

"Take your pick," he said and tried to walk away from her, but she followed him upstairs and into his room.

"You were smiling just now when you came home, it wasn't because of what you saw?" she tried from another direction.

"You're my sister. Why would I be smiling at seeing you like that?" he frowned.

"Sebastian would think it was funny if he walked in on Jace and Clary," Izzy said.

"That's because Sebastian is a bit of a psycho. He would probably be cheering on the sideline,"

"He's not a psycho. That's beside the point, you weren't smiling because of Simon and me, and so obviously something funny or good happened. I'm guessing it has something to do with a boy and I'm guessing that boy is Magnus. Am I close?"

"You're interrogating me," he noted flatly.

"Can you blame me for wanting to see my brother be happy?"

"You're kind of ruining it right now," he said, because he wasn't smiling anymore. Izzy walked to the door with a sad expression.

"I'm sorry," she looked hurt, when she left the room. Alec cursed under his breath, before rushing to the door.

"I'm sorry, Iz," he paused for a second, and he knew she was listening, even though her door was closed. "We kissed," he sighed. It only took Izzy a second to throw the door open.

"And?" she smiled hugely.

"That's it."

"How was it?"

He gave her a warning look.

"Right. Sorry. Are you going to see him again?"

"He asked if he could call me and plan a real date," he said with a bit of uncertainty.

"And what did you say?" Izzy wondered with excitement. Alec hesitated. What was the point in keeping it from her now?

"That I would be waiting for my phone to ring."

"Alec! That is so romantic!" she cheered.

"It is?" he wrinkled his nose. He hadn't thought of it as romantic, he had just wanted to give him more of an answer than a simple 'yes', once they'd finished joking about how Chairman Meow wasn't really an ideal chaperone. Isabelle beamed as she headed back into her room and shut the door behind her, and Alec just imagined her sitting in the window writing in her diary about how her gay brother had just had his first kiss tonight. He smiled to himself, before going to bed with a peaceful mind, suddenly confident that he would hear from Magnus soon.


	3. Chapter 3

**3. A Very Chocolaty First Date**

It was Tuesday afternoon, and like every other Tuesday Alec had target archery practice. He always enjoyed himself with an arrow and bow in hand – it was the only thing he was really good at, while all of his friends sucked at it. Otherwise, he wasn't used to being better than the rest of them at anything. Take Clary for example; Clary was an incredible artist, and though Alec didn't really like manga, he did like it when Clary was the one drawing it. Or Jace, who was good at everything he did, and just add his charms while doing everything. Alec didn't exactly have the charming personality on his side, like the rest of them. His friends just made it look so easy getting people to like them, while he didn't even like other people all that much.

But Alec had his quiet and peaceful moments, while at practice. He didn't really talk to anyone else in the class, only when they asked him for help. He wasn't rude.

Now he was controlling his breathing, while aiming for a bullseye. Some people did yoga; Alec did archery. It probably had a better effect on him than yoga would. Just as he was about to let go of an arrow and shoot, he noticed someone sneaking up behind him. Out of focus and as a reflex, the arrow shot through the air and landed in the circular board three rows to the left.

"Dammit!" he exclaimed, before turning around to see a smirking face behind him. "M-Magnus?"

"I thought you said you were good?" he grinned, but it was a beautiful sort of grin, and Alec couldn't be mad at him for distracting him from his aim.

"You surprised me. What are you doing here?" he asked. Magnus leaned closer as if about to share a secret.

"I was bored, and frankly, I missed you," the boy said. Alec's heart jumped and his stomach fluttered. He looked around nervously, and Magnus leaned back again a little disappointed. No one was paying attention to two of them. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't be so bold."

"It's okay," Alec found himself trying to assure both of them that it was fine.

"You're not out, and I wanna respect that," Magnus whispered. Alec thought about what it would be like to be out to the entire school, and he pushed the thought away. Magnus was bi, it wasn't the same, he told himself, although he knew it was most likely a lie. "Carry on," he smiled as if he was trying to share some inside joke that Alec didn't know about. "Come on, I wanna see how good you are."

"Oh. Right."

"I won't distract you," Magnus said, and Alec shot him a look. "Not on purpose, at least."

Alec took a deep breath; his hands were suddenly shaking. He wanted to impress Magnus with the one thing he was good at, to show him that he had this talent. He took his aim, and despite the slight tremble of his hand, the arrow bored into the center of the board. When he looked back at Magnus, the boy was biting his lower lip, while smiling. Alec's heart was stuttering. He couldn't help but look at Magnus' lips, it was like they were trying to communicate to him even when they didn't form any words, and he had to remind himself that he was on school ground, surrounded by other students of the same school he went to. Alec grabbed another arrow, and aimed again. The new arrow almost caused the last one to fall out of the center, but they both stayed supporting each other at the center of the board. Magnus started clapping, people looked at him as if he was disturbing their practice, and he stopped immediately and held his hands up as if to say 'sorry'. Alec blushed.

"I guess you are alright at that," he remarked, while walking back up to Alec. "So I was thinking Friday? I'll text you the plans, unless you like surprises?" he whispered.

"I hate surprises," Alec shrugged apologetically.

"That's what I thought," Magnus seemed proud to have somehow noticed this about him. "Friday?" he repeated, and Alec offered him a quick nod.

…

Friday seemed so far away. Why did this boy have to be so damn beautiful, it was almost impossible for him to not think about his perfectly framed eyes, or the lips that seemed to share unspoken secrets with him, when he was looking at them or even just now thinking about them. He hadn't known quite how out of focus he was the next couple of days, until his friends had started asking him and he had quickly avoided answering them every time. Isabelle knew it had to do with Magnus, but for once she had kept her mouth shut.

It was finally Thursday, but Magnus still hadn't texted him any details on what they were doing Friday night. They had been texting, even flirted in these texts, and they had been sending each other looks in the halls of the school, and to be honest Alec was a bit freaked out. He had never liked anyone, especially not this quickly, before. They had only just started talking a week ago, three days later they had had their first kiss, on Tuesday Magnus had admitted to missing him already, and now they were texting saucy messages to each other. Alec knew he sucked at being saucy, but he just went with it, because texting wasn't as difficult as standing face to face with someone and trying to convince them that you were good at using your hands for other things than just arrows and bows, which was what the conversation was about, when Jace entered Alec's room without knocking. Alec was so startled he almost fell off his chair. Jace frowned at him. He had been a bit jumpy lately, and he was never jumpy before. Jace often stopped by unannounced; there was nothing surprising about that.

"What are you doing?" Jace wondered. Alec looked quickly at the cell phone in his hand.

"Nothing," he said a bit too quickly, and Jace snatched the phone from his grip, before he could prevent it. Jace was just a tiny bit bigger than him, and so he wasn't able to get the phone back, while Jace was walking around the room reading aloud the last text.

"'Well, you worked that arrow expertly. I would love to see what else those hands of yours are good at'," Jace read.

"Stop it, you're being immature," Alec sighed. He could feel the heat in his cheeks.

"I'm being immature? Why are you sexting someone you just met?" Jace said, and Alec didn't want to answer him – mostly because he didn't think it really counted as sexting, yet. "Okay, how about this…" Jace said, before starting to type something into the phone. "'I'm sure I could think of ways to keep my hands busy if you were here right now'." He looked at Alec for a moment.

"Don't you dare," he warned his friend, but he saw that Jace pressed send. Alec reached to get his phone back to see if he had actually sent the text, and sure enough, that's what it said. "Why would you do that?!" Alec exclaimed with frustration and panic.

"Well, you were probably going to write something lame," he shrugged casually, as if it was no big deal. Alec buried his face in his palm, and the phone vibrated in his other hand. He looked at it frantically. _I hope you can still think of ways to prove that tomorrow._ He barely noticed how the text put a slight quirk to his lips, but Jace seemed to notice. "So it worked," he looked smug.

"Shut up."

"What did he say?" Jace had a way of asking in a tone of such casualness he almost seemed to not care.

"That's none of your business."

"I hope you're not keeping all the juicy stuff from me, Alec," Jace raised an eyebrow as a warning. Alec was nervous about tomorrow, especially since he still didn't know what they were doing, but maybe he needed to talk to someone about this stuff. Jace was experienced when it came to dating. He had had a few while he was trying to suppress his feelings for Clary. Besides, he was always confident, maybe he had some advice.

"We're going on a date tomorrow," the words rushed out of him.

"So my text did pay off," Jace grinned.

"No, we planned it on Tuesday."

"That somewhat explains why you're texting each other in a sexually suggestive manner," he noted.

"Right. We also kissed Monday night."

"I see you've been busy," Jace looked somewhat impressed.

"Do you think it's going too fast?"

"You know what I think about wasting time," he said with a wave of his hand. It wasn't really an answer at all. Jace sighed, probably by the look on Alec's face. "You're nervous?" he figured.

"He started sending me these texts and I just went with it. What if he expects something to happen? Do I just…" he stopped himself, because there was no way of knowing what he would feel about going any further than they had the last time, before actually being in the situation. It had seemed that he wanted more in the moment, when they had been kissing on the couch.

"If you're asking for the gay sex talk, I'm not sure I'm the right person, but sure, I'll try it out. When two handsome guys notice how…"

"Please stop talking," Alec begged.

"I guess I'm not very good at that. Maybe you should ask your dad?"

"Very funny," Alec snorted, although he was a bit shocked to hear Jace admit he wasn't good at something.

"Not to make any presumptions, but I'm pretty sure Magnus would know what to do if you found yourselves in a situation of… irresistible lust?" Jace said. "Does he know you're inexperienced?" he wondered. Alec found that the conversation had taken a turn in the wrong direction. No one liked to talk about their own inexperience.

"Yes, he knows."

"So am I right to say that if he doesn't respect that, then he doesn't deserve you?"

"I suppose you're right," Alec shrugged. "There's still one other thing – he promised he would tell me what we were doing on the date, but he hasn't told me yet. I told him I hate surprises." Jace suppressed a smile.

"He's playing you then. There are two things you could do. You could ask him if he's planned anything yet, or you could just not." It was so easy for Jace. He loved surprises, mainly because he never really cared about making plans himself, but also because Clary always made great surprises. Alec looked at his phone, and decided to text and find out what he had planned for tomorrow. It didn't take Magnus long to answer him. Alec read the text aloud.

"Tomorrow's plan includes chocolate, lots of chocolate. In case you don't like chocolate, I'll make you appreciate it as much as I do before the night ends. You'll see." Alec had just finished reading, when another text entered. "P.S. in case of allergies, please let me know beforehand." Alec looked up at Jace's expression – a mixture of amusement and approval.

"At least he's concerned about whether you have any allergies," he shrugged. Alec felt a lump form in his throat. "Relax, he's still just playing you. He's only making it sound like something sexual, because of your other recent texts. He's probably taking you out to try three different kinds of dessert," Jace tried, and it somewhat helped on his nerves.

"That's probably it," he nodded a bit absentmindedly, while texting back, _No allergies_.

…

As expected Izzy was bugging Alec about what he was going to wear to his date. He imagined that she was only reacting as his mother would've if she'd known, and if he'd been going on a date with a girl. Isabelle was different. She didn't care if he was going on a date with a girl or a guy, but she seemed to approve that he was going on a date with Magnus. It was pretty clear that she thought he was 'cool'.

"I'll do your hair," she said and placed him in her make-up chair (he called it a make-up chair, because it was placed in front of her mirror, and that's what she used it for).

"You don't think he'll notice that I've put a lot of effort into this?" he wondered.

"Of course he will. So?"

"Is that a good thing?" He felt like such a newbie.

"Yes! That'll show him that you like him. You do like him, right?"

"Of course I do. He's…" Alec trailed off once again thinking of Magnus' brown eyes and perfectly shaped lips, and his long lean body.

"Alright. So we also need to get you a bowtie for that shirt," she smiled at him, while putting some kind of product in his hair. He found that when she was done with him, he looked almost like an adult. His hair was standing in all the right directions as far as he knew, and the blue velvet bowtie that Izzy had lying around for some reason fit well with his navy blue blazer and gray shirt.

"Perfect!" she complimented her own work.

"Why do you have a bowtie?"

"I bought on sale two weeks ago, I was saving it for your birthday," she shrugged.

"Izzy…"

"I'll just give you something homemade for your birthday instead, so mom and dad won't notice. Or I'll rewrap it," she winked at him. He didn't know where the urge came from, but he leaned in to embrace his sister.

"Thank you."

"No problem?" She stood frozen in his embrace from the shock of it. They weren't the kind of siblings who hugged each other every day, or even in a teasing kind of way like Sebastian and Clary always did.

…

When Alec came to pick up Magnus at his house, his mother opened the door. She looked young for someone to have an eighteen-year-old son, younger than his mother, but he couldn't be sure. She welcomed him with a warm smile.

"You must be Alexander," she held out her hand and he shook it politely. "You look so handsome," she complimented. Alec would have to tell Izzy, when he got home, she would be thrilled to know that his date's mother thought her styling was 'handsome'. "Magnus is probably ready in a minute. I'm on my way out, but please just make yourself at home," she said and walked past him through the door. "Have fun!"

"You too, Mrs. Bane," he waved awkwardly after her, but she didn't turn to look at him.

About five minutes later Magnus came into the living, where Alec was waiting on the couch. He stood up as soon as he saw the other boy. He was wearing dark moss green skinny jeans with black prints like a zebras on them, and a white shirt. He made it look so effortless, Alec thought, while taking in the beautiful image. Magnus' eyeliner matched the green color of his pants and it was a great contrast to his brown eyes. He wasn't wearing any glitter, and Alec couldn't help but wonder if he had toned down his look for his benefits. Magnus seemed to notice that Alec himself had put some effort into his looks as well, and he looked pleased with it.

"Stunning," he breathed as he walked up to Alec and gave him a quick kiss on the lips, so light that Alec almost didn't know if they'd actually touched at all. He blushed at the compliment.

"Where are we going?"

"We're going to a chocolate tasting party. It's like wine-tasting, but with chocolate instead of wine," Magnus explained.

"I didn't know that was a thing?"

"It's a club. It's my mom's club, but she was going on a date tonight, and he actually told her that he was allergic to chocolate. That's why I asked you about allergies. You never know," he said.

"Oh. Well, chocolate it is then," Alec smiled.

…

There was a small group of people at the chocolate tasting party. They had laid out different kinds of gourmet chocolate for people to try, after listening to a small presentation on how chocolate was made. They also gave instructions for which chocolates to taste first, explaining how it was best to taste the sweetest ones at last, which Magnus had whispered a sexual comment on into Alec's ear, almost making him choke on his water. There were even sheets for notes, so they could rate the chocolate and in the end explain which chocolate they liked the best and why. It all seemed very glamorous, which Alec wasn't used to. His parents weren't exactly poor, but they were never part of fancy clubs like this one. His parents seemed boring compared to Magnus and his mother's life.

Afterwards they decided to walk all the way home. It was a beautiful late summer's night. They had only been walking for two minutes, when Alec felt Magnus lace their fingers together. It didn't appear that Magnus was even aware that he was brushing Alec's knuckles while they walked down the streets holding hands, but Alec was very much aware of the soft gesture.

"I normally make fun of other rich kids and their pretentious hobbies, but as it turns out chocolate tasting isn't so bad after all," Magnus mused.

"No, I had fun. I can still feel the burn on my tongue from the one with chili though," Alec grimaced.

"Wimp," Magnus teased in a loving manner, drawing Alec closer to him, so he could put his arm around him. Alec turned his face against Magnus' shoulder, absentmindedly inhaling the smell of sandalwood and soap on Magnus' jacket as he pressed his lips against the shoulder. He felt Magnus kiss his hair in return. He looked up into the brown eyes. They stopped for a second, looking at each other.

"Have I told you that you have very sexy eyes, Alexander Lightwood?" Magnus whispered, and Alec kissed him almost reflexively, pulling the other boy against him. Magnus turned his body to Alec and held him close, while kissing him back, parting his lips with his tongue. Alec had only just opened his mouth slightly, gasping for air, when a car drove past them and Alec was reminded that he was kissing a boy in the streets, where anyone could pass by them. He sucked in his breath, not wanting to stop kissing Magnus, not wanting to continue kissing in the street and definitely not wanting to hurt Magnus' feelings. His mind had turned into a hot mess within seconds. Magnus brushed his cheek, trying to get his attention back.

"It's okay, Alec. We don't have to kiss right here," Magnus assured him. "Let's just go back to my house."

…

Lights were on inside the house, when they arrived at Magnus' place. Magnus took a deep breath.

"My mom is home," he sighed. "That either means it was a bad date, or a really good one."

"How so?" Alec didn't understand.

"If it was a good date, she brought him home," he explained, and Alec's lips quirked up. Magnus noticed. "Like you," he added and kissed Alec quickly on the nose, before entering the house. He gestured for Alec to be quiet, and then it appeared he was listening for something. Alec heard someone talking. "She brought him home," Magnus frowned. "You don't have to stay, if you don't want to."

"Oh. Do you want me to go?" Alec felt the disappointment rush over him.

"No. I don't want you to go." His expression was soft, and he wasn't giving much away. Maybe he didn't want his mother to see them, although Alec didn't understand why, she seemed perfectly fine with him taking her son to chocolate tasting parties when she'd greeted him earlier.

"Okay," Alec said and took off his shoes. Magnus' smile was brilliant.

His mother and a gray-haired man in an expensive suit were sitting in the living room talking and drinking wine, when the two boys made their entrance.

"Magnus!" the woman cheered, when she saw the two of them. She seemed slightly tipsy, but it didn't seem to bother Magnus. "Did you boys have fun?"

"Yes. It was very delicious, mom," Magnus sighed as if this was common procedure.

"Do you boys want a glass of wine?" she offered.

"Aren't they a little too young?" the man asked with curiosity, obviously trying not to interfere, but also not being able to stop himself.

"Certainly no law should prevent me from giving my almost eighteen-year-old son a glass of wine while under the protection of my own roof, Clive?" she said in a warning tone.

"We would love a glass, please," Magnus looked smug.

They took their glasses upstairs. Alec sipped at his wine, a taste too bitter for Alec to enjoy, but he managed to drink some of it despite the bitterness. Magnus gulped down half his wine practically in one sip, before taking the glass from Alec's hand and putting down the glasses on a small table. His room was painted in a deep purple color, leaving the room extra dark at this hour, but Magnus turned on a small lamp hanging on the side of the wall, providing them with a bit of light. And then he was standing in front of Alec, looking down into his eyes. He lifted Alec's chin up and slowly pecked him on the lips. Alec would probably never cease to be surprised by the effect Magnus' touch had on him; from the first moment Magnus had brushed his arm ever so gently, and he'd felt his stomach flutter and his heart jump. He loved the tenderness that the other boy showed him, but Alec wanted more. He wasn't going to break, to be honest he would probably prove to be stronger than Magnus. He knew that wasn't what was holding Magnus back; he didn't want to pressure Alec. So Alec took hold of Magnus' neck and drew him closer, kissing him with all of his inexperience. Magnus reached around to remove the hands from his neck. For a moment Alec was afraid that he'd done something wrong, but then Magnus' hands around Alec's wrists forced them up against the wall on each side of his head.

"I need you not to touch me," Magnus breathed. "I would rather this didn't go further than first base, while my mother is in the living room. She's very understanding, but I would rather wait for their second or third date to scare away Clive." Magnus was joking. Alec could feel Magnus' breath against his ear as he whispered. Alec had no idea how far first base was, but he gave Magnus a short nod. Their mouths collided in sweet and bitter pleasure, the taste of chocolate and wine in a perfect mix, as Alec's tongue explored Magnus' mouth. Alec wanted to touch Magnus badly, but his arms were pinned against the wall in Magnus' iron grip. He didn't know what happened, but it was sometime after Magnus had nibbled Alec's jaw line and started to peck Alec at the base of his neck – the place where Magnus' kisses made him weak in his knees – that his legs gave way under him, he collapsed, dragging Magnus with him in the fall. Magnus' hushes were drowned by chuckles. They lay frozen on the floor for a while, catching their breaths and not really being able to take their eyes off each other.

"What do we do now?" Alec whispered.

"I told you, I always enjoy a good staring contest," Magnus smirked. Alec had almost forgotten their first encounter, in which he had been staring at Magnus. He sat up and offered Alec his hand to help him up, as he was flat against the floor on his back. "I'm going to read you," Magnus said, holding on to Alec's hand and brushing it softly to spread out his fingers.

"What are you going to read me?" Alec wondered.

"I'm going to read your palms," Magnus smirked.

"No."

"Yes."


	4. Chapter 4

**4. Palm Reading and Parents**

When Alec woke up the next morning, he had to orient himself. He turned around in the soft bed and found himself staring into a peacefully sleeping face. He felt a smile touch his own face, and put a hand up to touch the golden brown skin on the other boy's cheek. As a reflex Magnus' hand went up and laced around Alec's hand. Alec froze. He was caught now. If he moved out of Magnus' hold, he would wake up from what looked to be a beautiful dream, and so he just lay back down and relaxed for a moment, trying to recall what had happened last night. They had had a couple of glasses of wine, once Magnus had started to read his palms.

_"Your life line is straight and close to the edge of the palm," Magnus had said, while tracing one of the lines in Alec's palm that began near his thumb. _

_"It does not say I'm straight, right?" Alec frowned, but with a smidge of hope. _

_"No, I hope not," Magnus chuckled, but he looked serious when he spoke again, "it means you're cautious when it comes to relationships."_

_"Oh." _

Alec hadn't realized how many straight lines were in his palm, until Magnus started pointing out different meanings for each line. His head line was straight as well, and it meant that he usually had realistic thoughts. Everything Magnus had said seemed to fit his personality well, and he couldn't help but feel how unfair it was that now Magnus knew all these things about who Alec was, but he didn't know the same things about Magnus. He hadn't said anything, because they were both slightly tipsy and he had been pretty sure if he'd asked, Magnus would have just offered him his own palm for Alec to look at. Maybe it was enough to know such things about him; how he would respond to certain kinds of questions given the situation they were in. It didn't have to mean that Magnus was an open book, because he definitely was not. Alec had decided that he had enough time to figure out who Magnus was.

Eventually Magnus had finished reading both Alec's palms, and at this point Magnus was lying with his back against Alec's chest still looking at Alec's hands.

_"You're right. Your hands proved to be very useful tonight."_ Magnus had said, before kissing Alec's palm, referring to the text Jace had sent from Alec's phone, pretending to be Alec. After that they must have fallen asleep.

"That's a good look on you," Magnus said a bit groggily, waking up just now. Alec looked down and the other boy was looking up into his eyes. Alec took a quick look down at himself, to see if he was covered in glitter like Jace and Clary had been after sleeping in Magnus' bed. But they hadn't even gotten under the covers before they had fallen asleep. "Relax, no glitter. I meant that smile," he said before sitting up on his elbows.

"Oh."

"I've noticed you before. At school, I mean. You don't smile very often, do you?" Magnus's voice was low and sad.

"Really? I didn't realize," Alec lied.

"Both you and your sister, you only smile when there's something real to smile about," Magnus' eyes were fixed on Alec's. "That's what makes it especially charming when you do smile. It makes the person you're with feel flattered and special," his voice was almost a whisper now.

"Isabelle and I are nothing alike," Alec sniggered. He wasn't offended to be compared to his sister, rather the opposite, but he didn't see the resemblance in more than the color of their hair.

"Sure you are. You're both beautiful. She just does everything to emphasize it, while you… you do everything to downplay your looks," Magnus bit his lip. Alec swallowed hard. Why did Magnus have to be so perfect? He thought to himself. "I'm not trying to step on your toes," Magnus said. He suddenly looked as if he was regretting what he'd said. Alec slipped his legs out of the bed and sat on the edge.

"It's alright. You're not stepping on my toes. It's just a bit of a heavy conversation to have before coffee," Alec shrugged, not wanting to admit that Magnus was the first person to ever really look at him this way. Magnus smiled.

"I bet my mom is making coffee right now. Unless Clive stayed, which is highly unlikely," he said, while getting up.

"Why is that unlikely? I thought we were going to scare him away on their third date?" Alec said and Magnus smiled with amusement.

"Because he questioned her parenting. No one questions her parenting and gets further than one date," Magnus seemed pleased with this fact. He did seem like he'd been raised differently than most other kids Alec knew.

…

Magnus had been right, of course. Mrs. Bane was in the kitchen alone, sipping freshly brewed coffee and reading the newspaper, when the boys entered.

"Good morning, you two," she smiled and her smile was as brilliant as Magnus' smiles were. Alec felt out of place. Surely Magnus' mother knew they weren't just friends having had a sleepover. "Coffee?" she asked and got up and searched a shelf.

"What happened with Clive?" Magnus wondered and sat down at the kitchen table. Alec followed.

"It didn't work out," she shrugged. Magnus looked at Alec with an I-told-you-so look, before his mother turned back around with two cups filled with coffee. "Oh shoot, I forgot to leave room for milk. Do you use milk, Alexander?"

"No, I don't. Thank you," Alec sipped at the coffee with relief, washing away the heavy conversation with caffeine.

"I hate to be such a mom, but do your parents know you stayed here all night? I assume, since the two of you just fell asleep that it wasn't planned? And yes I checked in on you," she dipped a plain bagel in her coffee, as if she hadn't seen them cuddling in their sleep.

"Shit!" Realization hit Alec. He hadn't been thinking about his parents, but his dad would have been home last night some time after Alec had left. And now he was cursing in front of Magnus' mother. "I'm sorry, Mrs. Bane."

"You can curse in my house. But I would rather not be the target of angry parents. Isn't there like an unspoken rule that parents let each other know if their kids are staying over?" she looked like she was trying to recall a parent meeting that probably hadn't taken place.

"Mom, we're in high school," Magnus reminded her with a casualness that Alec would never use with his own mother.

"I'll just call them for you now, and you two can go do whatever you had planned for the day," she shrugged and reached for her phone. Alec's mouth opened, but the panic wouldn't allow him to form any words. Magnus came to his rescue.

"Please don't," he said and his mother looked at him with confusion.

"I don't understand?"

"Alec is not out to his parents. They don't know we were on a date last night," he explained. Her eyes flickered to Alec and he thought he detected a bit of hurt in them.

"Oh," she said, and put down the phone. She looked as if she had a million questions, and then decided to go with the simplest to ask, yet the most difficult to answer. "Why?"

"I…" Alec was still short on words.

"Mom, don't," Magnus tried in a loving and calm voice.

"Well, maybe Alexander wants to talk to an adult?" she offered. Alec had never thought about it. He didn't like to talk about his feelings. Maybe that's why Magnus seemed so perfect to him, because he didn't have to put his feelings into words, Magnus would just know from reading his expressions, and apparently also by reading his hands.

"I'm just not there yet, I think," Alec managed to stammer.

"When you are, I would be glad to help if you ever need it. I know some parents are not very understanding on the matter. Until then, I'm glad you have Magnus," she smiled at her son.

"Mom!" Magnus objected. It was new to see Magnus act this way with someone. He didn't seem embarrassed by his mother, more like she was his equal and the other way around. The superiority that he usually showed in school or he had outside of school by reputation was gone. Magnus turned to Alec. "Please note that this is her indirectly taking all credit for me being me."

"Well, shouldn't she?" Alec found that he was more at ease after the conversation had turned less dull.

"I like him," Mrs. Bane nodded towards Alec with half a smile. "If things don't work out with my son, give me a call," she winked, and Alec let go a short laugh. Magnus was not amused for once.

"We're leaving," he said and pulled at Alec's arm.

"Where are we going?"

"Anywhere but here," he blew his mother a kiss, before the two boys walked out of the house.

…

Isabelle was nibbling at the bagel Simon had bought her. Something was definitely bothering her. The first clue had been her calling him at 8 am on a Saturday morning to ask him out for breakfast. It wasn't a breakfast date – that would be weird, since they hadn't had an actual date yet. But he was now starting to realize that it was because she needed to get out of the house.

"Is it Alec? Was it not a good date?" he decided to guess what was wrong. He would probably have annoyed her so much after a couple of guesses that she would break in the end and tell him what was upsetting her.

"No. How did you know about his date?"

"Clary."

"How did Clary know?"

"I'm guessing Jace," Simon kept his impatience hidden away.

"Right. No, Alec didn't even come home last night."

"Really?" Simon smirked. Isabelle hit him on the arm.

"Stop it! That's my brother!"

"So your moping isn't about Alec. Is it me? Did I do something?" he wondered.

"No, Simon. You didn't do anything."

"Is it because of something I didn't do?" he asked, and to his relief she giggled. It was such a perfect sound, and despite his confusion he couldn't help but smile. She stopped abruptly and continued to sulk.

"Both my parents were home last night," she said. Simon narrowed his eyes as if it was going to help him understand how this rare occasion would upset her. "I don't like them when they're under the same roof. They keep fighting. They're always working, but I'm starting to think maybe that's a good thing," she sighed.

"Do you think they'll get a divorce?"

"Gosh, I hope not," she exclaimed. Simon did not understand this beautiful girl in front of him. She never made sense and it made him want her even more. He pushed up the glasses on his nose.

"You want them to just keep fighting?"

"I don't know what I want, Simon. I did wish that Alec had been home last night, so I wasn't alone listening to the two of them. I'm so selfish," she buried her face in her palms.

"You're not selfish. Izzy, you could have just come to my house. Although, my sisters were both home and they were screaming at each other, so I don't know if that had been much better. I wish I had a tree house or something," he said dreamily. Isabelle looked up at him with a soft smile and tears in her eyes. "No, please don't cry," he begged and put his hand up to touch her cheek. He didn't think Isabelle was a girl who cried, which made it so much worse. She put her hand over his.

"I wish you had a tree house too," she admitted and straightened up as she looked at something behind Simon. She quickly wiped her eyes. Simon turned around and looked at two familiar faces.

"Guys, this is such a coincidence," Simon cheered.

…

Alec had already regretted agreeing to go to the café for bagels. His sister and Simon had appeared to be having a moment, but of course Magnus would have to walk over to say hello.

"We were just going to get bagels," Alec said.

"You've come to the right place then," Simon pulled his shoulders up in a shrug. A tension had risen between the four of them. It was very clear that they had interrupted a moment.

"I'll just get in line. Bagel?" Magnus asked Alec, and he nodded quickly. Magnus disappeared further into the café. It was always packed on weekends.

"So are you ending your date with breakfast? Is it a breakfast date?" Simon wiggled his eyebrows. "Or maybe it's an entire weekend date, huh?"

"Stop saying 'date'," Alec hushed. He looked at his sister. She didn't look as confident as she usually did. "Did mom and dad say anything about me not coming home last night?" he wondered.

"They didn't even notice," Izzy sighed.

"Oh," Alec felt a bit of disappointment, but also some amount of relief.

"Just go back to your date," she said, not in a harsh tone, but as if she didn't have a care in the world.

"What's wrong?"

"The usual. Mom and dad are fighting again," she said.

"Again," he rolled his eyes. He didn't even know what they were fighting about anymore. At first it had been because of their dad's work, requiring him to work late hours and occasionally for him to work in other cities as well. But now that their mom had gotten more work too, it had seemed to ease up a bit, but apparently not. It had probably only seemed that way because they were never in the house together anymore.

"I bet you don't even know what they are fighting about?" Izzy sounded suddenly angry with him.

"What are they fighting about?" he asked with concern. Izzy bit her lip, as if to indicate she'd said too much. "Izzy, just tell me."

"I would rather not tell you right here," she said, crossed her arms and leaned back in the chair. Alec felt Magnus come up behind him. He didn't know how, because Magnus was very elegant in the way he approached others, but he could somehow see that elegance out of the corner of his eye.

"Well… I'll come talk to you later then, alright?" he said, and she didn't regard him with more than a sulking face.

"Are we leaving?" Magnus asked.

"Yeah, let's just go to the park," Alec said, a bit hurt that Izzy had had a fit in front of him.

…

Alec hadn't said anything, and Magnus hadn't said anything either on their way to the park. Alec had even forgotten to be a gentleman and offer to carry the bagels and coffee. He had just walked purposefully towards the park.

"Alec?" Magnus had stopped and Alec turned to look back at him. "What's going on?"

"It's nothing…" he said, but cut himself short. He looked at Magnus – Magnus who cared so much. Alec knew he shouldn't be dismissive with him. "It's just that Isabelle is very sensitive, and it sometimes gets to me. I don't like it when she's upset."

Magnus was smiling softly now.

"I wish I had a brother like you," he said. Alec made a face. "_Like_ you, not you obviously. That would be weird. Most of all because in no reality would my brother be that pale," Magnus teased. Alec's lips quirked up involuntarily. "Let's sit down," Magnus pointed at a bench and they both sat down. It was peaceful in the park. People were out walking their dogs, and kids were playing ball in the background, but the bench they'd found seemed unnoticed by the passer-bys. Magnus handed Alec a warm paper cup and a bagel with cream cheese. "Can I ask you something?" Magnus inquired. Alec looked up at the other boy, whose brown eyes had a calming effect on Alec.

"Sure."

"How come you haven't told your parents yet?"

"About what?" Alec sipped at his coffee, before he realized what Magnus meant. "Well, you haven't met my dad."

"Let's say I have, what would you tell me then?"

"'Have you met my dad?'" Alec knew he was only dragging the conversation out, which he rarely ever did. Magnus just looked at him, waiting for a better answer. "First of all, I'm pretty sure he's a typical homophobe."

"'Pretty sure' doesn't really count for anything," Magnus said. If it had been anyone else having this conversation with him, Alec was pretty sure he would have just gotten up and left or at least told him to piss off. But not Magnus, because it was almost like his interest came from a much sincerer place than what he was used to from his friends.

"Okay. How about this, my dad had a best friend once, Michael, they have known each other since they were both kids, but a few years ago they just stopped being friends. I didn't understand why, until I overheard my dad talk to some of their mutual colleagues about it, and I found out that Michael had been in love with my dad. Of course he rejected him, he had a wife and Isabelle and me, but it was the way that he started sabotaging him afterwards. It was almost as if their past didn't even matter anymore. My dad had outed him to several colleagues, and you know what being gay can do to a political career like my dad's, it was the same for Michael. Very few can really come back from that, and so he just decided to move out of town and start over," Alec explained. Magnus seemed to be digesting the story.

"Well, first of all, that's just ridiculous. We should be at a point in history where we can have gay politicians without making a big deal out of it," Magnus said, looking at Alec he probably noticed that he wasn't encouraged by this thought. "Second of all, maybe he's changed his mind. Surely he must have started to feel bad about his actions, once he realized he was missing his best friend. I don't have a lot of old friends myself, so I know what it means to still have them, but I also know what it means to lose them," he said.

"Yeah, maybe you're right." Alec didn't know what to think. Maybe his dad didn't care anymore, but what if he did?

"But it's your decision if you don't want to tell him. I'm not asking because I think you should, I'm only asking because I care," Magnus said. Alec brushed Magnus' thigh briefly in a discreet manner. He knew he wasn't being fair to Magnus, who didn't seem even remotely embarrassed about public display of affection. Alec looked down at his own hands, while thinking. Perhaps it was only a matter of time before Magnus would get tired of dating someone who didn't own who he was the same way Magnus did. "Alec, you're only in high school. There'll be plenty of time to be out."

"So you're fine with it?"

"Of course I'm not fine with it, Alec. It will be near torture hanging out with you in public and not being able to touch you," Magnus said a bit dramatically.

"Oh," Alec felt the disappointment. What did that mean? Were they breaking up? They weren't even in a relationship yet, at least he didn't think they were?

"I was only joking, but also not really. You have no idea what your blue eyes and black hair does to me, Alexander," Magnus sighed. Alec looked back up at Magnus with newfound hope.

"I'm sorry," Alec found himself apologizing.

"You can't help it. Well, technically you could, but please don't dye your hair," Magnus wrinkled his nose by the mere thought, probably thinking of him as a blonde.

"I won't."

They sat in the park for about an hour, just talking and watching people go by. Occasionally their fingers would lace together in between them for a short moment, while they were sitting on the bench, and then they would let go again when people came too close to them.

"It's not really fair, is it?" Alec finally said, somehow reminded by his previous thoughts from this morning, when he brushed the back of Magnus' hand.

"What isn't?"

"You know about all the straight lines in my palms. Did you know, you have absolutely no straight lines in your palms, and I have no idea what that means?" Alec said. Magnus' lips quirked up into a brilliant smile.

"Does that frustrate you, Alexander?"

"Yes," he sighed.

"Okay. On our next date, I'll read my own palms… out loud, to you."

Alec smiled to himself, because there would be a next date. It would be difficult to top a date that had been going on for almost eighteen hours, but he was also starting to realize that time spent with Magnus would never be disappointing or dull.


	5. Chapter 5

**5. 'Yes', 'No' or 'Maybe'**

Alec hadn't had the chance to have a real talk with Isabelle since the café. She had been out with Simon and Clary all weekend, though he hadn't known what they had been doing. Jace had seemed to be a bit distracted, when Alec had called him on Sunday. He was soon enough to find out why he had been distracted, when he met at school Monday morning. Jace came up to him in the hall looking smug.

"Have you seen your boyfriend this morning?" Jace asked and Alec hushed him.

"He's not my boyfriend," he whispered. "Is he?"

"I don't know. Do you want me to pass him a note? I hear the multiple choice of 'yes', 'no' or 'maybe' is effective," Jace said in all seriousness.

"Don't tell me – that's what you did with Clary?" Alec rolled his eyes.

"It was more a 'do you want to date the most gorgeous human being to walk the face of the Earth: 'yes', 'heck yes' or 'most def'."

"And which one did she pick?" Alec didn't believe him, of course.

"Well, you know Clary, she made a fourth option box," Jace appeared to be looking for someone down the hall.

"Really?" Alec couldn't hold his disbelief back, but he imagined that Jace had made the note after they had gotten somewhat serious, and she would have felt compelled to correct his overly confident options by making her own.

"Yes, sort of, if you must know her answer was 'OMG is this James Franco?'" Jace said, still searching the hall. Alec grinned.

"What are you looking for?"

"Not what, but who. Ah!" Jace exclaimed. Alec followed Jace's eyes and found that Magnus was walking up to his locker. Alec took a deep breath.

"Please don't do anything stupid," Alec begged.

"That might be a bit too late…" Jace said, just before Magnus opened his locker and glitter exploded out of it. "…but revenge is sweet," he finished with a smirk. "That worked even better than I'd hoped!" Alec imagined he'd been working on a glitter bomb all weekend.

Magnus looked down the hall towards them. Alec covered his face with his palm, but when he looked back up Magnus was walking towards the two of them with what seemed to be a mixed expression of annoyance, amusement and admiration.

"Touché," Magnus said, when he reached them. People all the way down the hall were laughing. All of Magnus' clothes and face were covered in pink and blue glitter. He hadn't even tried to shake some of it off, which resulted in the glitter slowly falling off him on its own as he walked, leaving a trail.

"Magnus…" Alec felt so uncomfortable he couldn't form any words.

"Stay out of it, Alec. This is between Jacob and me," Magnus said. He didn't look angry or embarrassed. He wore the glitter with pride, even though he was entirely covered. Surely some kind of dress code would prevent him from going to any of the classes that day.

"Jace," Alec corrected.

"What?"

"My name is Jace," Jace said unfazed, covering up his grin with one hand.

"Well, that's a weird name," Magnus shrugged this small mistake off. Alec knew he was aware of Jace's name, because he'd talked about him on occasion, and despite what Magnus might claim, he listened to Alec. Perhaps he'd thought Jace was short for Jacob. "Jace Heronfail it is then?" Magnus mused.

"Touché back at you," Jace grinned. "You're really good with nicknames, aren't you? I can't begin to imagine what names you already have for our dear Alexander."

Alec felt dizzy all of a sudden. Why would Jace talk like this in front of the entire school? People were staring at them.

"Jace, please don't," Alec begged under his breath.

"Very well. Truce," Jace put out his hand for Magnus to shake.

"For now," Magnus shook his hand – dust of glitter falling off, as his arm shook firmly with the gesture. He turned on his heels and walked away. Alec looked at Jace with accusation, before walking off to class.

…

Alec couldn't spot Magnus anywhere during lunch, although that was nothing new. He had never noticed Magnus in the cafeteria before they started dating, so why should that change now? Alec sat down at his friends' table. Clary leaned closer to him with the apology shining out of her, before she even spoke.

"I'm so sorry, Alec. I had no idea he would do that," she turned an angry look in Jace's direction at the last part. Alec had no idea why she was apologizing on behalf of Jace, she had never done that before, and Jace did silly stupid things all the time. Maybe they had just reached that part of the relationship where they thought they were one.

"Come on, it was a classic prank. I can honestly say I was a bit disappointed that he didn't even suspect it," Jace interfered.

"How would he have suspected it?" Alec demanded.

"Lighten up, Alec," Jace nudged Alec.

Alec ignored the rest of the conversation, because it was mostly Jace gloating over how brilliant he thought he was and explaining his secret to how he'd done it to the rest of the group, while no one seemed really interested – which never seemed to matter for Jace to tell a story.

Isabelle and Simon were unusually quiet during lunch. In fact, Alec was pretty sure they didn't say a word during the half hour break. So on the way to class Alec held Izzy back.

"Are you coming straight home after school? So we can talk?"

"Yes," she replied with annoyance.

It was a long day for Alec. He was busy thinking about everything other than what was going on in history class – really, who cared about what happened in Europe a long time ago. Instead he was busy worrying about Magnus. Would he be angry now? Did he get in trouble for all that glitter? And then there was Isabelle, who had seemed awfully quiet at lunch; it had almost been unbearable to watch. Maybe she was going through a phase?

When classes were over he found his friends hanging out in the schoolyard. The image sort of reminded him of _Freaks and Geeks_, the only thing missing was the weed. None of them were smoking at the moment, not even Sebastian, who was also there. He was the first one to notice Alec approaching.

"Alec! How did it go with the switch-hitter?" Sebastian asked. Alec thought he might have misheard him, but he didn't know what else Sebastian might have said for it to make sense.

"The what?"

"He's making baseball metaphors. He's talking about Magnus. It means he can bat from either side," Simon said as if it would explain anything.

"What?"

"Magnus, he's a switch-hitter. Didn't he date a girl last year?" Sebastian continued. Clary looked as if she was trying to figure out a way to shut her brother up.

"He's being rude, ignore him," she sighed.

"No, I'm not, but since we all know that I'm your favorite fag hag I've taken it to be my responsibility to learn the jargon – switch-hitter is a baseball metaphor for someone like Magnus. There are a few baseball metaphors for gay men. Tell me, Alec, are you a Catcher or a Pitcher?" Sebastian was leaning his entire upper body over the table, waiting for an answer that he must have known he wasn't going to get.

"I think I'm gonna leave," Alec said, feeling in a bad mood already. Besides, the two people he needed to talk to, Isabelle and Magnus, were the only ones not in the group of friends in the schoolyard, having a _Freaks and Geeks_ moment.

"What did I say?" Sebastian wondered, as Alec walked away.

"There was like one, maybe two words in there that wasn't insulting!" Alec only just heard Simon exclaim, before he was out of the schoolyard, only just feeling the fresh air in his face.

Sometimes Alec wasn't sure that Sebastian was even aware that he was being a bit of a jerk, but he usually just ignored it, because that's what everyone else did.

…

Isabelle was alone in the house when Alec came home. She was in her room listening to sad music, pretending to be the emo she wasn't despite her black wardrobe.

"What's going on?" he wondered. The look of utter indifference she gave him disturbed him more than it probably should. She was a master at manipulation. But she turned off the music and just lay back down on the bed.

"You're so busy with your own shit, that you don't even notice what's going on right in front of you!" she half-yelled.

"Izzy!" Alec was shocked that she would talk to him like that – like they were just ordinary siblings. They were more than that; they were friends. She could be rude to their parents, but she was never rude to him.

"Dad is cheating on mom," the words spilled out of her as if she was having a fit.

"I don't… No," he shook his head. She couldn't be telling the truth.

"Yes. I heard them talking about it months ago. Dad admitted it. They didn't know I was listening, of course." She was looking at her hands now, as she was calming down. Alec saw how the pressure of knowing this secret alone was lifted off her shoulders.

"You're serious?" Alec sat down at the edge of Isabelle's bed.

"Unfortunately," she said in a low voice.

"So that's what they are fighting about?" he realized. Isabelle nodded. She was right – he had been too busy caring about his own life rather than noticing the problems this family was having. "You know, if they decide to get divorced, it's probably going to be the best solution, right?" He wanted to ease her up to the possibility of a divorce, so that she wouldn't react as she always did when faced with such situations – with anger and hidden pain. It was the 21st century, people got divorced all the time.

"I know."

"Still, that doesn't change the fact that it's wrong of them to ignore us in the process. They should have told us they were having problems." He climbed into the bed and lay down next to her, looking up at the ceiling. "We should definitely confront them about it."

They were quiet for a while. Alec was suddenly relieved to have a sibling in times like these. He seemed to be the calm sibling of the two, but the truth was that he was only keeping calm for her benefit.

"I'm sorry about what I said before," Izzy spoke, and Alec turned to look at her. "About you being busy with your own shit. I know it's not shit. I can't imagine…"

"Izzy, you don't have to," Alec interrupted.

"You had fun with Magnus, right?" The hope was clear in her voice. "He seems like a fun person."

"He is. But he's also more than just that," Alec said, and looked back up at the ceiling after seeing Izzy's lips quirk up.

"I'm glad you have him now," she added.

"I'm not so sure that I _have_ him. I mean, he's not exactly the subtle type."

"You mean because you're not out?"

"Yes. But there's also something else, something Sebastian said…" Alec added, thinking about the baseball metaphor. Magnus had been dating a girl last year, a very blonde and very girly girl. How could Alec match that? And what were a Catcher and a Pitcher? Was it something he could ask his sister about or was it as dirty as he always expected from Sebastian? He noticed Izzy was rolling her eyes.

"You don't listen to Sebastian. He will mess with your head, and it will satisfy him immensely," she said in a voice of warning. Alec decided to take her advice, and that's when he remembered what had happened this morning. He hadn't seen Magnus since the glitter.

"I should probably call and hear what happened after the glitter bomb," Alec got out of the bed.

"Or you could just go to his house?" Izzy suggested.

"But what about you?"

"I have homework," she shrugged.

"Okay," Alec hesitated for a moment, but then he left her room.

…

Alec was not going to let Sebastian get into his head. It didn't matter that Magnus had dated a blonde girl last year, because it shouldn't. Still, it filled him with insecurity to know about it. Instead he should take Jace's advice and ask him if they were exclusive – at least he had suspected that's what Jace had meant underneath all that joking around about passing notes.

Magnus was the one to open the door, and he started smiling when he saw Alec.

"This is a surprise," he smiled. Alec's heart jumped. He didn't remember ever seeing anyone this happy to see him before.

"Hey," Alec said, suddenly nervous.

"Do you want to come inside?" Magnus offered, and Alec just went inside without saying anything. His throat was itching. Was he really about to ask Magnus to be his boyfriend?

"Did you get in trouble?" Alec asked, as they entered the living room.

"No. Not serious trouble anyway."

"You don't seem mad?" Alec studied Magnus' expression. He seemed anything but angry.

"Why would I be mad? It was kind of genius. I didn't suspect a thing," he shrugged, and sat down on the couch. Alec sat down in a chair across from Magnus. "Is that why you're here? To see if I was alright?" Magnus looked amused now.

"Well… yeah?" Alec admitted to this being part of why he was there. Magnus bit his lower lip. It seemed to be a trade he had for when Alec was concerned or thoughtful. Magnus leaned his elbows on his knees. Alec observed him as he seemed to go through different emotions all of the sudden. At last Magnus stood up.

"Alec…" he said, and Alec stood up to be at the same level as him. Magnus sucked in the air in front of him, as they stood eye to eye. "I think I might be falling for you. No I'm definitely falling for you. And if you don't…" Magnus' words were rushed, but confident. Alec only had to take one step forward and he could close the distance between them, interrupting Magnus' rant with a fervent kiss. Magnus seemed shocked by the gesture, but only for a second, before Alec felt hands on his arms, moving over his chest, brushing his stomach, and calming the kiss turning it slower and less aggressive. Magnus pulled Alec at his belt loops, trying to see if he could get any closer. With his hands around Magnus' back, he pressed himself closer to the other boy, diving in, dizziness filling his head, making his thoughts and decisions unclear. He was brought back to his own mind, when Magnus broke off the kiss.

"I… wanted to ask you…" Alec didn't know how to ask.

"Yes, Alexander?" Magnus inquired.

"Does this mean…?"

"What?" He was going to make him ask, even though his expression revealed that he knew exactly what Alec was about to ask him. But he was going to make him say it himself, because he knew Alec was new at dating and he should be comfortable enough to ask the question. At least that's how Alec saw it himself.

"Does this mean we're a couple?"

"If you want us to be?" Magnus said.

"Yes." Magnus reached out for Alec's hand, but he drew it back. If Magnus touched him again, he wouldn't be able to stop himself from making out with him again, and he also wanted to talk to Magnus.

"Is something wrong?"

"I want to tell my parents about you," Alec said.

"Alec, you don't have to…"

"Not right away, but soon. I just found out that my dad had a secret himself, and I don't think he really has the right to judge me, even if that's what he decides to do," Alec explained.

"Let me guess, he's running off with that childhood friend of his – Michael?" Magnus tried to lighten the mood, and it somewhat worked.

"No. But he is having an affair."

"I'm sorry. I wouldn't have joked like that, if I knew that was it," Magnus said.

"It's alright. I don't even know who it is anyway."

"So it could be Michael," Magnus smirked. Instead of telling Magnus how ridiculous he was Alec shoved him in a teasing manner. As a result he faked a fall and dragged Alec with him down onto the couch, and as usual it sent a flutter through his stomach, when he landed on top of the other boy. For a second Alec thought he was going to wrestle Magnus for fun, but when his eyes went over Magnus' lips he loosened his grip around his arms, he saw the lips part and Alec dived in to kiss them without hesitation – all tongue, teeth and titillation. Remembering that he was keeping himself an inch apart from Magnus by holding himself up, he lay down against the other boy feeling Magnus' subtle muscles flex under his own. The feel of Magnus' warmth against his own body made him tremble. Alec was drowning in Magnus' grasp as the other boy clutched at him, but he didn't care, it was a wonderful kind of drowning, and he started getting ideas – he began kissing Magnus down his jaw line and neck, and Magnus seemed to catch his breath. "I don't know how I feel about you getting worked up over my insinuations about your dad, but I think I like where this is going," Magnus breathed. Alec sat up instantly, still on top of Magnus.

"Please don't talk," he said, trying not to think about Magnus' insinuation. Magnus sat up and he was almost as tall as Alec, even though Alec was on top of him.

"As you wish," Magnus grinned, laced his fingers with Alec's T-shirt and dragged him back down to continue what he'd just interrupted.


	6. Chapter 6

**6. Magnus' Glitter Party (And So The Glitter War Continues)**

Everything was great. Magnus was great. Alec had never felt better. All of his friends were couples, and now he and Magnus was a couple as well. Magnus didn't even seem to mind that he couldn't kiss him at school or in public, although, a few times he'd slipped his hand into Alec's at school or on a date, and Alec had squeezed it lightly, before discreetly taking his hand back. Magnus didn't complain, even if sometimes Alec complained about it himself.

They had been dating for a few weeks, and Alec had never thought he would give himself this much to someone this quickly, but he felt like he was ready to go all the way. That's when someone slipped a piece of paper into his hand at school in a very subtle manner – a flyer. Alec looked at it, and as soon as he saw that it had been written with a glitter pen, he knew who had made it without reading the name. He rushed outside to the back of the school, where he'd come to learn Magnus always hung out. Magnus wasn't alone; he was with another kid from school – Raphael. Alec knew they were friends, but that didn't mean he liked Raphael very much. He always looked as if he thought he was better than everyone else, or maybe he was just bored all the time.

"Alexander," Raphael's pronunciation of his name sounded like a purr in his Spanish accent. Alec ignored him and held out the flyer in front of Magnus' face.

"A glitter party? Really?" he said with disbelieve.

"Yes, it'll be fun, don't you think?"

"You're doing this because of the glitter war, right? The one you and Jace have?" Alec figured.

"Partly. I will enjoy not letting him into my party, because he doesn't comply with my glitter dress code. Also, I really want to see you in sequins," Magnus flashed a smile.

"You must know that's not going to happen," Alec warned him. From the corner of his eye he noticed Raphael rolling his eyes.

"We'll see about that," Magnus said, and bit his lip challengingly. He knew what his charms did to Alec, and it wasn't fair to use them at school. Alec turned his back on the two.

"I can't wait to see Raphael in a glitter," Alec said, just before walking off. Raphael's look was just as simple as Alec's, and he would probably hate glitter even more than Alec would. To be honest, he'd probably come to sort of like it a little when Magnus wore glitter around his eyes or in his hair, or even that sequined T-shirt he had.

…

"So I was thinking we should get ready for the party at my place. Just us girls," Izzy said. Clary looked up at Izzy, who seemed busy studying her apple before biting into it.

"What do you mean get ready? Like have drinks? Without the boys?" Clary wondered. Izzy rolled her eyes, and looked as if she was trying to come up with an explanation for morons.

"No, we're going to dress up. There's a dress code, Magnus won't let us in unless we're wearing glitter, and I don't expect you to have anything remotely glittered?"

"Of course we're going to get in, aren't we sort of his friends now that he's Alec's boyfriend?" Clary tried.

"Don't count on it. Besides, this is probably Jace's fault, you know. He was probably the inspiration, since the school's dress code wouldn't allow Magnus to go to class with all that glitter from his glitter bomb that day."

"Really? Is this some kind of war they have going on? I'm not sure I'm comfortable with that," Clary wrinkled her nose. But Izzy had gotten her thinking – she was always so gorgeous, maybe she could teach Clary a few things. She knew Jace didn't like her for her girly looks, but it would be nice to surprise him once in a while, even if it meant going outside of her comfort zone. "Okay," she said.

"Okay what?"

"Okay, we should get ready together. Do you have any glitter I can borrow?" Clary asked.

"I think we'll have to go shopping," Izzy flashed a wicked grin.

After school the two of them went shopping. To Clary's great surprise Izzy found a dress for herself that wasn't black, it was a dark blue and green sequin tube dress, but it wasn't black. Clary found a sequin skirt with a gold, copper and silver pattern, and she actually liked it. It was a bit short, but not as short as Izzy's dress at least. Clary hadn't thought she would have this much fun shopping with someone as bossy and girly as Izzy, but she'd enjoyed herself with some girl time. She'd never been used to girl time with anyone other than her mom. Izzy hadn't always liked Clary, not before she started whatever it was that her and Simon had started. Now Izzy seemed intend on wanting to make friends with her. Perhaps it was some kind of 'keep your friends close, but your enemies closer' strategy, seeing that Simon was her best friend and she was a girl, but if that was the case Izzy hid it well.

"We definitely have to put your hair up," Izzy said as they were in her room, finding all of her makeup.

"Jace likes my hair down," she shrugged. They were going to a party, she was dressing up and so she figured she might as well look good for someone. Izzy turned to look at Clary.

"First lesson, you do not dress up for a boy, you dress up for yourself. Second lesson, boys might like your hair down, but they do also enjoy to be the ones taking it down," Izzy said matter-of-factly.

"Oh."

Izzy had much to teach her, Clary thought, when she also explained that you never went to a party on time. An hour after the party had started, and the girls were still in Izzy's room just finishing up, a knock sounded on the door. The boys came in, and the sight was comical. Jace was wearing a very eighties glitter, yet somewhat formal, shirt and it looked ridiculous, but of course he wore it with pride – he did have a glitter war to win. Alec was wearing a simple black shirt and black jeans, but he'd topped it off with a sequined bowtie and he actually looked incredibly handsome. Simon had glued sequins onto his old prescribed sunglasses and he looked like an Elton John wannabe, and she noticed that he was gaping at Izzy.

"Wow. You look like a mermaid wearing legs!" Simon said to Izzy, and Clary thought she saw a tinge of flattery cross Izzy's face, but she didn't blush, Isabelle Lightwood never blushed. And she did actually look like a two-legged mermaid in those colors. That's when Jace walked up to Clary.

"How do you like my outfit?" he asked, and shook his head as if to flip his hair back, but it stayed in place.

"Very glamorous," she giggled.

"I hate to complain, but I think that skirt could have been a bit shorter," Jace noted with sarcasm.

"Oh, too bad. I didn't wear it for you," Clary shrugged, and went to take Alec's arm. Alec looked confused. "Here's how I see it – since Simon is drooling over the mermaid here, I can't take her as my date, that leaves me with you two, and since for once I'm better looking than you, I'm going to walk with Alec, because let's face it no one wants to be seen next to that," Clary did her best mean girl act, when she pointed at Jace. He didn't look hurt, but amused.

"Well, as long as I get to walk behind you, I guess I won't complain again," Jace said, glancing behind Clary, and unlike Izzy, Clary blushed.

"Should we get going?" she looked at Alec, who looked stunned.

"Sure," he shrugged.

"Where did you get that bowtie?" Clary wondered, as she and Alec walked down the streets in the front of the group.

"Magnus bought it," he answered.

"Of course," she smiled softly. Alec leaned closer to her.

"Why are you teasing Jace?" he whispered.

"Sometimes you need to put him in place, and I also think this glitter war is ridiculous," she whispered back.

"Thank you, that's what I thought too," he smiled back at her.

"And to be honest, I really do think you look better tonight. Don't tell him I said that," she admitted.

…

Alec couldn't help but be a little impressed, and slightly flattered by Clary. He had never really thought of her as much other than Jace's foster sister or now Jace's girlfriend. It was stupid, because of course there was more to this girl than just that. He surely didn't want to be seen as just someone's boyfriend, or someone's brother, which he was, but it also wasn't all he was.

Magnus was the one who opened the door, when they reached his house. He was wearing a velvet blazer on top of a black shirt, with fake diamond buttons. There was a small amount of glitter around his eyes, and some in his hair making it shine in the dark light. Alec could hear the party blasting all the way out into the street. Magnus glanced at Alec and Clary standing together in the doorway.

"Should I be worried?" he suppressed a smile, and looked behind them at the rest of the group.

"Oh yes," Clary said in a definite tone.

"I can see why you wouldn't want to walk next to that," he nodded towards Jace.

"What does he mean, Alec? Doesn't he know a good catch when he sees one?" Jace replied.

"Obviously not," Clary grinned.

"Well, it appears that neither of us will back down. I respect that in a man, Herondale, you may enter the party," Magnus said.

"Is that what he said last night?" Alec felt the blood run out of his face. He'd never liked those jokes, but he especially didn't like them when they were pointed at him. Magnus just offered Jace a smug look, as he let them all inside. Alec didn't know if any of the others noticed, but as he walked past Magnus he felt the faint gesture of his fingers brushing his hand, and when he looked up into his eyes they were a bit unfocused as if he'd already had a few cocktails.

Inside the party was bright with glitter. On the kitchen table was the usual glittery drinks, but more than just that – there were cupcakes and the frosting was covered in glitter as well. Very few of them had been eaten it seemed; perhaps it wasn't exactly healthy to eat that much glitter.

"Don't worry, it's edible." Alec heard a voice say in an accent. He turned to look at Raphael, who wasn't wearing any glitter.

"Don't tell me, you're his glitter pusher? You have that back-alley vibe going on," Jace mused.

"Funny," Raphael replied with no indication of amusement. "Nice shirt."

Jace took a drink for him and Clary and they walked away. Alec flashed Raphael something he hoped came off as a smile, but wasn't entirely sure, before heading off after his friends. Izzy and Simon had disappeared outside. Alec noticed Magnus talking to Raphael in the other corner of the living room, while sipping at the awful drink.

"If you want to be with him, just go be with him. Screw these guys," Jace said.

"Sure, it's easy for you, because you don't care about anything or anyone's opinion," Alec snorted.

"How do you make that sound like a bad thing?"

Alec knew that Jace was right, but that didn't lessen his fear. He wanted to go through high school unnoticed, because that was the easy way through.

"Or…" Clary stepped in between him and Jace to get closer to Alec. "…you could play a game. Role-play. Seduce him as if you were having an affair, and leave him flirtatious hints throughout the party, without anyone noticing," she suggested. Clary kept surprising him this evening. He hoped it didn't have anything to do with her spending more time with Izzy.

"I can see that – Alec as the seductive mistress," Jace joked.

"Don't do that," Clary shook her head at him. "Come on, it'll be fun. I'll help you, we just need to find a post-it," she said, and left for a moment.

"Once she gets an idea in her little red head, you won't be able to change her mind," Jace shrugged. "She's also quite the little match maker that one, she's spent the past few weeks helping Simon and Izzy make a tree house," he added.

Clary came back with a pen and a small piece of paper, before Alec could ask what they would want a tree house for.

"You should probably write it yourself. Just write something you would normally write, but add a little more to it," she said.

"But I wouldn't write notes?"

"Jace," she turned to her boyfriend. "We all know you're the seductive mistress in our relationship, what would you write me?"

Jace smiled wryly and with a plotting sort of look in his eyes. Alec couldn't even begin to imagine what kind of dirty thoughts he was having. Alec grabbed the pen and paper.

"Never mind, I'll think of something," he said, took the note and left the two of them.

On the way to find a quiet place he was able to grab two glasses of alcoholic beverages, just to ease his nerves and make him creative. He bottomed both glasses quickly before scribbling down a subtle note. '_Meet me upstairs in ten_'. He knew that if it had been Magnus writing a note for him he would have used adoring nicknames, but Alec didn't feel natural using nicknames, instead he went with the demanding seducer. He folded the piece of paper into a small square and went to find Magnus. He was in the kitchen with Raphael, making some sort of cocktail with his back to Alec. Raphael noticed him immediately and left respectfully.

"I think this could use a bit more vodka, don't you think Raph…" Magnus said as he turned around to see that his friend was gone. "Alec," he smiled, and he looked a bit tipsy. Alec checked to see if anyone was looking into the kitchen, but there was no one in sight, so he slipped the note into Magnus' hand, holding onto his hand for a short moment, while not breaking eye contact. He could sense that Magnus was steadying his breathing, just as he was. And then he left the room.

Upstairs Magnus' room was occupied, and Alec hurried on to the next room, which belonged to Mrs. Bane. He sat down on the bed while thinking how Magnus would probably have to throw the couple out of his room before finding Alec.

Soon he heard the door to Magnus' room being opened, but no voices had followed, when the door to the master bedroom slowly opened. Magnus hurried inside, when he noticed Alec on the bed.

"Is something wrong?" he wondered. Alec walked over to the other boy. Clary hadn't told him how to proceed once he'd gotten this far in the process. Alec reached up to cup Magnus' face and brushed the smooth skin of his cheekbones with his thumbs. His eyes were shining suddenly. The blood was pumping faster through his veins, and he closed the small distance with his mouth against Magnus' lips. He pressed his lips hard against Magnus' and explored his mouth as if it was the first time doing so. Magnus stumbled forward and pushed him onto the bed, the rush of it making Alec both excited and nervous. A part of him thought it was happening too fast, but the bigger part of him didn't want to hold off any longer. He clutched at Magnus, as they kept rolling around on the bed. Alec's hands found the buttons of Magnus' shirt, his fingers found the bare skin of Magnus' stomach, and the other boy made a sound of surprise at the back of his throat.

"Alec…" Magnus breathed. Alec moved his hands to lace his fingers in Magnus', placing them on each side of his head against the bed, just like Magnus had held Alec's hands in place that first date. Magnus tried to reach up to him, but Alec had the advantage of being on top and having a firm hold of the other boy's hands. Magnus let his head fall back against the soft bed with a silent sigh. Suddenly Alec felt nervous. Magnus didn't seem as into it as he'd thought he was.

"Oh God. I'm so stupid," Alec let go of his hands and scrambled back off the bed, but Magnus' long arms stretched out and took hold of him, before he could get further away.

"No, you're not stupid. You're wonderful."

"Then why…? Where did you go just then?" he asked. Magnus opened his mouth to answer, but before he could say anything sirens sounded outside of the house. Magnus flew out of bed and ran to the window.

"Shit! The neighbors must have called on us," Magnus said.

"We should probably leave," Alec said flatly. Magnus nodded.

They escaped out the back from the bathroom window, climbing down the flowered wall. People were running everywhere, but the two of them kept themselves out of the light of the party, and ran through the bushes.

…

"My mom is going to be so pissed," Magnus' tone was a mix between a laugh and a nervous breakdown, as they reached Alec's house. They hadn't talked about Magnus' small rejection in the bedroom. They had just silently agreed to go to Alec's house, because they had nowhere else to go.

"She doesn't seem like the type of person who gets pissed off?" Alec inquired.

"Oh, you have no idea – all those times when a normal parent would have freaked out, she is saving up for the big finale. It happens once every third year or so. Do you think your parents are home?" Magnus mused.

"I don't think so. My dad is at a conference upstate, or at least that's the story he went with. My mom is visiting our grandparents," Alec bit his lip, because as he was talking Magnus was leaning closer to him. Alec now had his back against the front door. Hopefully Isabelle had gone with the others and not taken them back here.

"I'm sorry about earlier. It's just, I'm not sure it's healthy to feel this strongly about someone this early," Magnus admitted, and Alec sucked in the air in front of him, because it wasn't what he'd expected Magnus to say. When Magnus kissed him it was careful and tender, and though Alec usually liked how unpracticed he felt compared to Magnus' skilled passionate kisses, he now realized that he also enjoyed tender Magnus. He didn't know what to do with such kiss, and he had to fight the urge to grab at the other boy and pull him close like he used to. Instead he felt the softness that was Magnus' lips, the careful caress of Magnus' fingers in his hair and the other cautious hand around the small of his back. They fit so perfectly, he thought, as his own hands laced around Magnus' neck. Alec had never thought he would fit with anyone, yet here he was, the first boy he'd ever kissed and he seemed perfect now. Seeing that Magnus could also be this tender, Alec thought that maybe this was the time to go to next base. He had been ready earlier that evening, but it had terrified him. He had always been afraid to go further, because Magnus always gave off mixed signals of what he was into, but this side of him, this side was what he wanted to be his first time.

Alec reached around and unlocked the front door. It was time to get inside, before neighbors would see two boys kissing by the front door of the Lightwood home. He took Magnus' hand and led him inside the house. Someone had forgotten to turn off the light in the kitchen, he noticed from the hallway. Alec lifted Magnus' hand so he could kiss it, while heading for the kitchen. They might be able to find some wine. But he froze in the doorway, Magnus a bit slower to notice that the kitchen was occupied, because he was busy looking at Alec. Alec's eyes met with his father's and they were both quiet, but it was two different kinds of quiet. Alec felt like fainting, as if the room had stopped in time around him. While his father looked as the typical calm before the storm.

"Dad!" Alec finally exclaimed, after what seemed like a moment too long. Magnus pulled his hand back out of Alec's firm grasp, and hid it in his pocket.

"Who is this?" his father asked. Alec's vision was blurred, his head was spinning and he had to make a quick decision. When Izzy and Alec were younger and had lied about something, they'd begun to recognize their father for his inquisitions, and they'd soon learned to just not show any signs of what was going on in their lives, or he would find out by interrogating them.

"This is Magnus," Alec swallowed hard. "My boyfriend," he said and held his breath. Robert's face was expressionless, but his eyes revealed the many emotions the man went through.

"It's late. Magnus should probably go home," he finally said.

Alec looked at Magnus. He didn't want the other boy to leave him. Magnus' smile was one of compassion, and Alec wanted him by his side.

"Magnus is staying," Alec said.

"Well…" Robert stood up, and before he could object any further Alec took a step forward.

"Dad…"

"Not now, Alec." His father sounded tired.

"Yes now. You're going to yell at me, and I'd rather you did it now, but you must know that it's not going to change anything," Alec felt brave suddenly. He hadn't known he had it in him. Maybe it was the effect of the remaining alcohol in his system.

"Please be reasonable, Alexander," his father sighed.

"Be reasonable how, precisely?"

Robert's hand slammed down on the table, before he composed himself.

"I'm up for a promotion, you know that. A gay son will impair that position, not all people accept it so easily, not in my business," he thundered.

"So easily? You think it's easy for me?"

"That promotion will most likely save us from losing the house. Don't ruin this family, Alexander."

A snorting sound escaped Alec's throat.

"You're one to talk!" Alec snapped.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Who are you having an affair with?" he demanded, and his father was clearly taken aback.

…

Magnus could not believe that this was Alec – his Alec, standing up to his father, telling him off, and showing him that he didn't have the right to judge. Magnus felt a pride, but also a great deal of sadness inside from looking at the scene in front of him. This boy had a hold of him like no one before. He wasn't promiscuous, but he'd been around. Yet, he'd never found someone quite this capable of holding his heart, which meant he would also be very capable of breaking it if he ever wanted to.

"Alexander, I…" Mr. Lightwood looked as if he'd just been shot, and was now just realizing where the bullet had hit him.

"That's what I thought. We're going to my room. Magnus can't go home, his house is empty, he'll stay the night," Alec said decidedly. He had never seen Alec this confident before – Alec, who always seemed to be insecure and unsure of himself. Alec, who never thought much of himself, but always strived for approval. Magnus felt Alec's fingers take hold of his wrist and he dragged Magnus with him, up the stairs and into what had probably never looked like a teenage boy's room. Alec didn't keep much stuff in his room, but it didn't necessarily make the room cold. Alec turned the key and locked the door behind them. Because Alec was standing so close to him, he could see the heart beat fast in his chest and the pulse racing in his throat.

"Alec, are you alright?" Magnus cupped the other boy's face with one hand, trying to get him to look up at him.

"I never got to try your edible glitter cupcakes," Alec said, still looking down at the floor. Magnus had to suppress a smile, even though Alec wasn't looking up at him.

"If we're lucky the cops left a few behind."

…

"Shit! Did they see us?" Simon exclaimed as he and Izzy ran across the grass and ended up by a playground near Magnus' house. Simon turned to see if Izzy had heard him, and she crashed into him. He staggered, shortly thinking she hadn't noticed him stop, but then she kissed him aggressively. Almost by reflex he reached around her and drew her closer, practically lifting her up. Izzy was in some kind of rare mood, which was always hot. When she leaned back, she gasped and her hand flew up to her mouth. "What? I'm not that bad? You've kissed me before, surely you would have told me earlier?"

He was ready to hear her say that it was a mistake, she shouldn't have kissed him and that it had been a spur of the moment – she had momentarily gotten excited about the party being put to an end by the cops. But then she looked at her hand, and Simon noticed small drops of blood on them.

"You're bleeding!" he said, just before realizing he'd bit her. It was her lip that was bleeding. How had he not noticed? "Oh no, I'm sorry, Izzy. I didn't mean to…" But he didn't get to finish his apology, before she had jumped into his arms, this time he staggered back and landed on the slide, Izzy still on top, kissing him with newfound passion. He tasted her blood in his mouth, and the adrenaline ran through his veins with excitement. "Isabelle," he breathed in between lips locking and unlocking. "Isabelle, we're on a playground."

"So?" she asked while pecking at his jaw line.

"Kids play here during the day." To his great regret she leaned back.

"You're right."

"I have a better idea," he said, remembering what Clary and the two of them had been working on for the past few weeks –

"The tree house," Izzy almost read his mind.

They kept a fast pace on the way back to the tree house in his backyard. They had all contributed with something to make it happen. Some might say that they were too old to have a tree house, but the truth was that a tree house could work for many things. With the right amount of blankets and candlelight it was the perfect place for a romantic date. And boy did they have a lot of blankets and candles. Clary had provided most of the candles; she had a collection of them. They lit a few of them when they finally got there. The house was only just big enough to sit up straight, and as Izzy sat down her already short dress rolled up a little, leaving little for the imagination. Simon felt the fire in his cheeks, and hoped she wouldn't notice. He dropped the lighter when his eyes went over her thighs.

"We don't need that much light anyway," he said and leaned over to kiss her soft lips. His hands ran over the dress and the sequins itched against his skin. How had she gotten the dress on? It seemed glued to her body, though emphasizing all of her perfections.

"There's a zipper in the back," she said, almost as if she'd read his mind once again. He guessed that he wasn't exactly the mysterious type. He reached around and found the zipper, and placed her back against the blankets so he could slip the dress off her. The nervousness he felt made him bump his head into the roof of the tree house, when he pulled his own T-shirt off.

"Ouch," he exclaimed, silently cursing himself for being so clumsy in front of a practically naked goddess like Izzy. She didn't laugh at him, instead she held up her hand.

"Come here," she said softly, and he leaned down to lie on top of her, but he didn't stay there for long. Izzy was the kind of girl who would want to have the upper hand, and so she turned him over before he could make any struggles and expertly undid his jeans.

…

This night had been full of ups and downs for Alec. He had not been comfortable with the suggested role-play, but he had enjoyed what the note had led to. He felt both relieved and terrified by the fact that his father knew about Magnus. He knew hell was waiting for him, but previous events of the evening prevented him from thinking about it further. Magnus in his room distracted the fear and turned it into something else entirely, as he looked at Alec with his deep brown eyes.

"I must say, I'm kind of disappointed you didn't have any glitter contacts to wear tonight," Alec felt brave still, whether it was from the adrenaline of telling his father off or the alcohol, he couldn't be sure.

"Oh really?" Magnus smirked, and stepped closer to Alec, but not so close that he couldn't still look up and down at Alec. Magnus looked as if he was searching for something on Alec to use as a payback for his comment, but he didn't find anything to point out, which made Alec feel a bit more confident. "I don't know what you're doing to me, Alec, but my usual wit appears to be momentarily gone," he sighed.

"Good," Alec said and pulled Magnus into a soft kiss. He brushed off Magnus' blazer and as a response Magnus ripped off Alec's bowtie. Surprised by the force and the little he felt of the ripping, he leaned back. "Hey, I liked that bowtie."

"No you didn't," Magnus looked smug.

"I really didn't," Alec only just gave him an apologetic glance, before Magnus pulled him down onto the bed. They practically continued where they'd left off back in the bedroom in Magnus' house, rolling around in the bed, but this time pieces of clothing went missing in between rolling around. Alec clutched at Magnus desperately, feeling every inch of him as they kept making out. Alec escaped into Magnus. He wanted to be with someone who would make him forget about all the bad things in his life, and make him see the good things instead – Magnus was that person. The memory of the night slowly faded, as Alec gave himself to Magnus completely, and until there was no more left to give.

Vulnerability had never felt so great.


	7. Chapter 7

**7. An In Tents Camping Trip**

Jace was looking at Alec as if he knew everything that had went on the other night, but he had been careful not to tell them that him and Magnus had been intimate right after Alec had stood up to his father.

"Once again, I feel like you're keeping the juicy stuff from me. You better not be, Alec," Jace warned him. Alec just frowned at him. His interest in Alec's love life was rather alarming; maybe he was bored with Clary?

"You're not hearing me. My dad kicked me out, he basically said that I could come back when I was straight," Alec said with frustration.

"He did not actually say that," Izzy said. She'd heard it all from her room, because the conversation had been pretty loud.

"He told me to get a nice girlfriend or get a new home, how is that not the same?" Alec demanded.

"That's ridiculous. Good for you, you stood up to him," Simon cheered.

"I still feel like there's more to this story. You said that Magnus stayed the night?" Jace kept circling around the topic. It was not that he was being insensitive; it was more just his way of deflecting the issue.

"Well, you can borrow my tree house?" Simon offered.

"It's not _your_ tree house, it's everybody's tree house, Simon," Clary pointed out.

"He can still use it, right?"

"Of course he can! I'll stay there too," Izzy said.

"What? Absolutely not," Alec shook his head.

"I won't be staying at home if you're not allowed there!"

"Yes you are, this has nothing to do with you," Alec thundered.

"If everyone had that same attitude there would be no allies. Do you know how the world would look like without allies? Gays would not have any rights, Alec, that's what the world would look like," Izzy stated.

"She's kind of right," Jace shrugged, taking Izzy's side.

"I think she might be the smartest person I know," Simon said dreamily, but no one was listening to him.

"You can stay in the tree house then. I'm not gonna stay in a fucking tree house," Alec said.

"You'll stay with me then. We'll have a slumber party every night, and we'll make pedicures and braid each other's hair, just like old times," Jace suggested.

"You're in a group home, you can't have friends stay overnight," Alec sighed.

"I know, I was just trying to prove how your only option is to go to Magnus, or you know – Simon's."

"What about me?" Clary wondered.

"No way, I saw you two with your arms locked before the party the other night," Jace waved a hand at her, not even the slightest bit of jealousy showing.

"I might as well say this now – I'm into blondes," Clary admitted as if it was a confession from deep within.

"And I'm into boys, but we all sacrifice something along the way," Alec joked.

"Alec, I'm sure my mom will talk your dad, or maybe Luke can talk some sense into him," Clary said.

"I would rather if they didn't know. It's bad enough as it is. I'll crash on Magnus' couch or something," he shrugged.

"Right, the couch," Jace rolled his eyes. "Nothing exciting ever happens around here."

"Oh, so you didn't hear about the boy from school who was kicked out of his home for being gay?" Simon joked.

"Thanks, you guys. You've been really helpful," Alec said sarcastically.

…

Magnus somehow knew, as soon as he saw Alec at the front door of his house. He had seen his father's reaction after all. Without a word he just dragged him inside the house by his shirt. His mother was in the kitchen, but she wasn't cooking, she was just drinking coffee and reading, even though it was in the middle of the day.

"Alec!" she smiled. He had gotten her around to calling him Alec instead of Alexander. Alec stepped closer into the kitchen, followed by Magnus.

"Mrs. Bane, do you think I could stay here for a couple of days?" he hated to ask her, because he knew she wouldn't be able to say no if he was the one asking and not Magnus, and it felt wrong of him to take advantage of that.

"Sure. If your parents don't mind you staying over on school nights?"

"They won't care," Alec said in a low voice, not finding the strength or confidence to speak up. Her eyes flickered towards Magnus and back again.

"Oh. Well…" Mrs. Bane was short on words, and it was clear that she understood. She got up and went around the kitchen island to stand in front of the boys. She held her arms up and pulled Alec in for a hug, which he awkwardly repaid with a pat on her back. He wasn't used to embraces. The only one who occasionally hugged him was Izzy, and even that was pretty rare. "We'll order Thai food or pizza, and watch reruns of lame reality shows," she smiled softly. Alec looked up at Magnus to see if he was okay, and all he met was as soft a smile as his mother's.

"Thank you, Mrs. Bane. I appreciate it," Alec replied.

…

It was pretty obvious that Magnus was more devastated than Alec himself. Alec had expected it to happen. His father was up for a promotion soon, and a gay son wouldn't exactly help his position. Magnus had it easy, he thought, his mother was the kindest woman on the planet, probably. She had been sitting with them all afternoon talking, retelling Alec that of course he could stay until things calmed down at home. She even offered to go talk to his father, but Alec had turned down the offer for now.

"You don't have to look at me like I need rescuing. I'm fine," Alec sighed, when Magnus and him had gone to his purple bedroom to be alone.

"I know you don't need rescuing, Alec," Magnus said calmly. He started thinking about something, Alec could tell, he had this sort of plotting look that he knew from Jace as well, even if they looked nothing alike. And despite the fact that it was clouded with compassion it was still there underneath the surface. "I have an idea," Magnus said as expected.

"What?"

Magnus dragged Alec downstairs, outside and into the garage. It looked like no one had moved anything in there for years. It had probably been his father's place to use. Magnus found something in a green bag.

"We should go camping," he suggested. Alec looked at his boyfriend sideways, shortly imagining Magnus in a tent.

"Are you kidding me?" Alec asked flatly.

"No, don't be such a downer."

"You like camping?"

"I like you, and you're outdoorsy, I thought you would enjoy it. I don't mind as long as you're there. You can bring your bow and shoot squirrels for dinner," he smiled. Alec remembered once when him, Jace and Simon had gone camping for the weekend. It had been their way of trying to be manly and mature, and it had been awful, mostly because Simon had brought his guitar and insisted on all of them singing together. He would like to try out camping without Simon, or even Jace. Alec took hold of the bag with the tent in it and looked at the photo on the side. It was a photo of how the tent would look when put up. It wasn't a normal tent. By the looks of it, Alec sort of expected it to come with a Jacuzzi and it's own maid.

"This isn't a tent?" Alec said. For a short moment Magnus looked confused, but before he could reassure Alec that it was a real tent, he realized what Alec had meant.

"We can get another tent if it's too much?"

"I'm just trying to imagine the two of us trying to put up this tent. My dad never took me camping. I've gone camping once. Besides, it's not really a tent if you can stand upright inside of it," Alec explained. Camping was all about the small space of the tent, so that you would stay more outside the tent and be part of nature. You only had to sleep inside the tent.

"You want a tent where we can only lie down? I like your thinking, Mr. Lightwood," Magnus smirked. Alec was momentarily speechless, both because of Magnus' insinuation, but also because he just called him Mr. Lightwood and he didn't really want to be reminded of his dad.

"I didn't… we… don't call me that," he finally managed to stutter.

"I'm sorry," Magnus said and threw down the bag with the tent. "We're going tent shopping. Now I want the tiniest tent in the shop."

"You know they make tents for kids, right?"

"Even better!" Magnus seemed suddenly overly confident.

It didn't take them long to find a normal sized tent and other essentials for camping, just before the store closed that night. Magnus had convinced Alec that it was the perfect revenge to skip school for two days and go camping with his boyfriend, because it was something that would annoy Robert immensely if he was ever told that Alec skipped school for such foolishness.

"What about your mom?" Alec wondered as they were eating breakfast the next morning. Mrs. Bane had already left for an early meeting, but surely she wouldn't be happy about Magnus skipping school.

"She's one rainbow flag away from becoming a PFLAG mom," Magnus shrugged.

"A what?"

"Parents, Friends and Family of Lesbians and Gays. She doesn't go to the meetings, she doesn't do well with other parents, I've never figured out why. But she realizes it's difficult sometimes, and she's alright with me skipping school to support my homeless boyfriend," Magnus said.

"I wish she was my mom," Alec said.

"That would just be weird, wouldn't it? I mean, we've been over this before, there's no way my brother would ever be that pale," Magnus joked.

"Shut up, maybe I have that same thing as Michael Jackson," Alec replied, a bit proud of his own wit, when Magnus suppressed a smile.

"Valid point. We should probably get going, so we don't miss the one bus that goes far enough for us to find a camping spot," Magnus said, and bottomed his coffee.

…

Almost miraculously they found a campground that was fairly deserted. They had passed a lot of families on their way, but Magnus noticing that Alec wasn't comfortable camping around families kept going until they found a nice quiet spot. At least it was quiet for a short while.

They managed to put up the tent, or more like Alec managed to put up the tent, while Magnus was watching and pretending to be helpful by commenting on Alec working.

"It really is a small tent, good thing we didn't go for the children's tent," Magnus said as he measured the tent with his eyes, tilting his head once in a while. "We're both fairly tall, we'll probably have to snuggle," he added.

"Is that a bad thing?" Alec wondered, concentrating on fastening the tent so that it would stay put, but he caught a glance at Magnus' grin, before the sound of a new text message escaped Magnus' pocket. "You brought your phone?"

"It could be an emergency," Magnus shrugged and read the text. Alec shook his head and finished up the tent, while Magnus answered his text.

"All done," he said, when he'd fastened the last bit of the tent to the ground.

"Looks cozy. Now for the sleeping bags!" Magnus cheered.

"Hold on. Was it an emergency?" Alec inquired, although he knew it wasn't, but he was still curious to know who Magnus was texting.

"Not exactly, but you hadn't told Isabelle we were going camping," Magnus said.

"Because it's none of her business. Tell me you didn't tell her where we are?"

"Of course I did. What if we have an accident and no one knows where we are?" Magnus said.

"Oh there's going to be an accident – if Izzy tells the others where we are, they will come here as well and I will feel compelled to break your leg," Alec said in a very serious tone. He knew his friends all too well, he could just imagine them when Izzy would tell them that they'd gone camping – Clary would think it sounded like fun, and spontaneous as Jace was he would pack a bag immediately and take her camping. One time Clary had mentioned that she liked Green Day and Jace had bought tickets to their next show, even though the concert was nearly across the country.

Magnus took a step closer to Alec, and put his hand on Alec's chest in a seductive manner.

"I'm sure they'll understand that we just want some privacy," he whispered, before he leaned in to kiss Alec's neck just below his ear. Alec clutched at Magnus' shirt when he felt the other boy lick his earlobe.

"You don't know Jace. He doesn't know the definition of privacy," Alec breathed.

…

As usual Simon couldn't help but stare when Izzy entered the cafeteria at lunch. She was wearing heels as always, and tight leather look jeans with a black top, while her hair hang loose around her shoulders almost reaching her waist. Sometimes he forgot his own name when she stepped into the room, even now after they'd been friends for months. She sat down next to him and took the brownie from his hand, which he'd completely forgotten about.

"Sure, go ahead and eat my brownie," he mumbled.

"It didn't look like you were going to eat it anyway," she said coldly. _Burn_, Simon thought. They had had a small quarrel last night, when she'd come to his house. She had stayed in the tree house, after telling her parents that she wouldn't stay in a house where Alec wasn't allowed, and Simon had admired her for that. But when the two of them had been making out in the tree house, he had first had the intention of going down on her, because he thought she would like to try something new. However, it hadn't gone as planned, as it turned out girls' private parts were really complicated and he had chickened out.

"So did you find out where Alec was?" Jace asked.

"Him and Magnus are out camping," she said.

"Aww, that sounds like fun," Clary smiled. Jace shot her a look.

"I guess he didn't feel like going to school. Maybe we should all ditch school and go camping?"

"Maybe they went because they wanted some alone-time?" Simon tried. He remembered the last time they went camping.

"It's not like we won't bring our own tents," Jace said.

"I don't know…" Clary sounded unsure. "How about we go on a weekend instead? My mom would freak if I ditched school."

"Where is your sense of spontaneity and adventure?" Jace frowned.

"I think Clary's right. Besides, we shouldn't intrude," said Simon.

"We're not intruding. We're his friends, and friends are there for each other in difficult times."

"I think it would be fun," Izzy shrugged casually. "I don't really feel like going to class these days anyway."

"Izzy!" Simon had expected more from her at least.

"What, my parents are jerks. I say screw 'em," she said. Simon's eyes met Clary's and they both knew who would get their way, mostly because Clary also looked slightly excited about the idea.

"I guess we're going camping," Simon said, shuddering inside from the memory of their last camping trip. At least this time he would have Clary and Izzy there too.

…

Magnus handed Alec one of the sleeping bags for him to fold out.

"You didn't put glitter in it, did you?" Alec teased.

"Of course not!" Magnus made a poor offended act. Alec pulled it out of the bag and saw that sure enough it didn't have any glitter _in_ it, but the blue color was basically glitter itself. Of course he would have found the shiniest sleeping bags in the store, Alec thought with a smirk. Magnus noticed. "I'm growing on you, aren't I?"

Alec thought of all sorts of responses to that, but he wasn't the type of person who would ever use those kinds of responses out loud or he would get too embarrassed about it himself – Jace was more the kind of person who would make remarks to such question. Instead he went with a non-innuendo answer.

"I'm just starting to realize that when it comes to glitter you're completely incorrigible, but that's also what I like about you… apparently," Alec shrugged.

"Well," Magnus took a step closer to Alec; they were standing in front of the tent entrance. "I know it's early, but how about we test these sleeping bags right now? Unless you feel like going fishing first?"

"Is fishing supposed to be code for something, or do you actually mean fishing?" Alec wondered nervously. They hadn't brought fishing gear. They hadn't even gone by Alec's house to get his bow, before leaving, because he didn't want to take the chance of running into his dad.

"Shut up, Alexander. And get in the tent," Magnus demanded and Alec did as told without hesitation. Dominating-Magnus sort of got him excited. Magnus followed him inside the tent, where he lay down on top of him. Alec was just starting to zoom out everything around him but Magnus' hand up his shirt and another hand very close to the hem of his jeans, when he heard voices outside. He remembered that he was in a tent, a very small tent at that, and that anyone passing by would probably hear them and realize what they were doing. He quickly sat up as a reflex and banged his head into Magnus'.

"Ouch!"

"I'm sorry!" Alec whispered, while looking for a bruise on his head, but he couldn't see anything on Magnus' forehead.

"What happened?"

"I hear voices," Alec hushed, thinking that if they were quiet the people would go away, but then he recognized a voice.

"_This is like searching for a needle in a haystack!_"

"_You're such a spoilsport, Simon,_" Jace said.

"_Spoilsport? Does people actually say that?_"

Magnus looked at Alec. For a moment Alec thought he was going to apologize for telling Isabelle where they were, but then he just gave Alec a shrug and went outside.

"What an unpleasant surprise," Magnus said, and Alec peered out of the tent.

"We found the needle," Jace looked at Simon triumphantly. Simon just scowled back at him. Alec could have been wrong, but he sensed that Simon was the only of the four who seemed to feel like they were intruding. "I hope we didn't interrupt anything," Jace said as if to no one in particular.

"What are you doing here?" Alec demanded.

"We've come to camp with you," Izzy said as if it was the most natural thing on Earth.

Of course there was no reasoning with the four of them or even a way to politely tell them to back off, and before Alec knew it his friends were camping with them. On the bright side, they had brought ingredients for s'mores, which of course the two of them hadn't even thought of, because they had had other things in mind when going camping.

Alec was surprised when Magnus offered to help start a fire, and even more surprised when he without much effort made the campfire.

"Wow, you really have a _flare_ for that sort of thing," Simon joked, as the fire flared up almost as if under some sort of spell by Magnus' hands.

"Does this guy ever run out of puns?" Magnus wondered.

"I should hope not, sarcasm and puns are my only defense, but just in case that I do run out of things to say, I brought a book we could read around the campfire, it's called _A Hitchiker's Guide To Not Getting Killed_ by Ren Tacar," Simon said.

"Hilarious," Alec said flatly.

And things only got worse as the evening progressed. What could have been a sweet and quiet camping trip with his boyfriend had turned out to be the camping trip in hell. Before dinner was ready he had walked past Simon and Isabelle making out – Simon's hand up Izzy's shirt. And Jace had almost lost the one pair of shoes he'd brought on the trip, if Alec hadn't jumped into the water and soaked himself just to save a wet shoe – now they had four wet shoes. Alec hadn't even seen how it had happened, because Jace was always the fast one of the two, but something had distracted him, while they had walked by the lake. Luckily, Magnus had brought lots of extra clothes and so Alec could wear a pair of his velvet pants and a T-shirt, which surprisingly didn't have any sequins or glitter on it, however it did say '_Classy Sassy and a bit Smart Assy_' in purple letters. Even more odd was that Jace's clumsiness continued by the fire, when he was concentrating on warming soup a spark suddenly caught at his jacket. Worst-case scenario flashed before Alec's eyes as he saw a small flame on his best friend, but luckily Clary was quick to stop the flame before it could flare up. Even Simon had gotten to his feet in horror.

"Phew. This camping trip is getting in tents," he said. Alec scowled at him. Jace flashed a grin, and Clary burst out laughing, while Izzy rolled her eyes.

"We're clearly not very good at camping," Alec sighed.

"Where is your spirit? Let's just make s'mores, it will make everything better," Magnus smiled at his boyfriend. But it didn't. Alec had never made s'mores before, and he almost ruined Magnus' shirt, when the chocolate fell down all the way from the corner of his mouth, down his chin and onto the purple letters messing up the word 'Smart'. Nothing was going the way he'd hoped for this trip, and he felt the heat rise in his cheeks as the anger rushed over him. "Alec, don't worry about it. Chocolate is way easier to get off clothes than… glitter," Magnus said as if he'd meant to say something else, probably noticing the change in his mood. "Here, let me help you."

"I'm fine, I don't need your help!" Alec snapped and went into the tent to be alone. It was a stupid thing to get upset about, but it was more than just spilt chocolate – it was this entire camping trip.

…

Magnus looked around at the group and gave them all an apologetic look, before disappearing into the tent after Alec.

"We were just having fun. Why is he upset?" Jace wondered. Simon took a deep breath and decided he needed to interfere.

"Gee, I don't know. Maybe because we crashed his romantic camping trip, soaked his only pair of shoes, almost caused a forest fire, and don't forget that he was recently kicked out of his own home," Simon said. Jace didn't respond. For a short moment Simon thought he had offended Jace enough to make him speechless, but that's when he noticed Jace was actually looking sympathetic to the whole scene. Jace got to his feet and walked away from the campfire and into the forest.

"Simon!" Clary exclaimed.

"What? I don't really think anyone other than Alec is entitled to be mad at the moment."

Clary got up and walked in the direction Jace had disappeared. Simon turned to look at Izzy, who had been unusually quiet this entire time. She was still toasting marshmallows over the dying fire.

"Don't tell me you're mad at me too for speaking my mind?" he asked.

"No, I think you're right, actually. It was stupid of us. I just wanted to get away from home, but it was selfish," she said quietly. Simon held his breath for a moment. Izzy never admitted that she was wrong or selfish.

"We'll just go home tomorrow. They'll get over it," Simon said and moved closer to Izzy. "Now that I have managed to scare them all away, the campfire seems kind of romantic?" he tried. Izzy gave away a short laugh.

"I bet this was your plan all along."

"Yeah, I'm secretly a master at manipulation. Also, about the other night…" he started to bring it up.

"Simon, stop talking," she warned.

"No, I want to apologize, I thought it would be easy, but then it looked so complicated…" Simon stopped himself as he saw Izzy's cheeks brighten in color. Izzy never blushed. "Okay, let's not talk about it then."

"It's just… I thought you didn't like the way I look… down there," Izzy's cheeks were now a bright red color.

"Are you kidding me?" Simon asked and immediately realized she wasn't kidding at all. He had never seen her this insecure, and it was starting to worry him, so he quickly whispered into her ear. "I think every inch of you is gorgeous."

Izzy giggled and pulled the marshmallow away from the warmth of the fire. It was running down the stick, because it had overheated. She grabbed the Hershey's and the crackers anyway, before she offered Simon the first bite.

"Do you think if we go inside the tent and try out that thing again, they will be able to hear us?" Simon whispered. Izzy stood up.

"I think I don't care," she said and went for the tent. Simon lay down the rest of the s'more, and went after her, hoping it didn't count as littering.

Izzy had brought four pillows with her, which they had all pestered her about, but now Simon was grateful for the pillows. His spine felt hard against the ground of the tent, but at least it was soft from his shoulders and up, as Izzy pushed him down. Soon her mouth covered his, her hands were rubbing against his pants and it was driving him mad. He wanted more, but he had also promised that he would go down on her first and he really wanted to make her feel good, so he carefully turned her over so she was against the ground and he sat on top of her. Izzy started unbuttoning her sweater and Simon pulled off his shirt. It was a rather cold night, but both their bodies were warming up as more clothes went off. It was even more cramped inside the tent than it was in the tree house, but Simon was able to find a way for him to only slightly awkwardly fit between her legs. He unbuttoned her jeans and pulled them off along with her lace underwear. Izzy gave away a little gasp and a shiver. Maybe it was too cold out for her to be entirely naked? He was wearing a tank top and jeans still. He reached around for his sweater and wrapped it around her shoulders, giving her a small kiss before moving down again. He kissed her stomach, passed her navel, leaving goose pimples on her soft skin. He should just go for it right? Izzy looked down at him as he paused.

"I'll guide you if you need it," she whispered.

Simon continued to kiss her thigh, before he reached the part of her that had had him chicken out the night before. He kissed her, and though her breathing shifted, her body didn't seem to respond.

"Use your tongue, Simon," she breathed. And he obeyed by the sound of his name from her voice. It was an odd taste, not what he had expected, but a good kind of odd. Soon she was wet, but as his hand rested on her stomach, he still didn't get the response he wanted from her. He knew he should have studied how to eat out a girl first, now he had to improvise. He stroked her thigh and let one finger glide inside her. Izzy's back arched up with surprise. "What are you doing?" she breathed with panic.

"Just work with me," he whispered and twirled his finger, she sucked in the air in front of her and leaned back down. He licked her again, and he felt her widen, so he took a chance and inserted a second finger. Izzy grabbed at the pillows and covered her face with two of them.

"Oh God, Simon!" she exclaimed breathily. Simon let his fingers wander as if they were searching for something – a moan, a whimper, a cry, anything. "Simon, flick your tongue," she said through the pillows. Simon's tongue circled and flicked, and Izzy's stomach went up and down, so he continued to circle and flick. Izzy threw the pillows aside and her leg flew up around his shoulder, holding him down. She started to tighten around his fingers, and she whimpered, so he used his free hand to cover her mouth. Her body arched, and few moments later her body relaxed again, breathing heavily. "What did you do with your fingers?"

"Circles?" he admitted.

"That was very good," she said, still out of breath.

"Yeah, there's definitely no way that the others didn't hear your whimper," he grinned.

"Shut up," she said as she threw a pillow at him.

…

"Jace? Jonathan Christopher Herondale, if you don't tell me where you are I'm just going to go around in circles until a bear nearby decides I'm his dinner," Clary called out, and just as she'd stopped to look around, someone grabbed her by the elbow and dragged her up against a tree.

"There's no bears around here," Jace grinned.

"Kidnappers then?" She flashed her best doe eyes. "Are you mad?"

"Are you speaking in the general sense of the word or are you asking if I'm mad at Lewis?"

"I know you're mad in the general definition of mad. I meant about Simon?" she asked.

"No. I was just getting tired of listening to everybody whine, but mostly I left because I knew you would follow me." He looked smug. Clary realized she was pinned against a tree and there was no way to escape, even if she wanted to. Jace's arms rested on the tree behind her head. She relaxed and her small hands brushed up under Jace's shirt. He was always warm, even though he was only wearing a T-shirt and his open jacket now with holes in it from the fire. She felt his muscles as they responded under her cold hands – she'd drawn his abs a million times, and every time she asked him to model for her he would pull off his shirt and throw himself down on the bed saying "draw me like one of your French girls, Jack", and each time she would laugh just as much, while pulling out her pencils and sketchbook. He leaned down and kissed her tenderly, while his skin was starting to warm up her hands. His hands reached around her back, moved down and pulled her legs up around his waist in a firm hold, while her back was hard against the tree. She retrieved her hands and folded them around his neck, as she dived into the kiss headfirst.

…

Alec was lying on his side on top of a sleeping bag, when Magnus came into the tent. Alec didn't look up at him, but he could feel Magnus being careful as he zipped the tent and lay down next to Alec.

"You're upset?" Magnus finally said. Alec took in deep breaths. He wanted to be alone with Magnus, and though it might look like they were alone, his friends were still out there. He could hear them talking and they could probably hear Magnus talking now. "Look, I'm sorry I told them where we were, but you can't really blame me, can you?"

Alec turned around and looked at the other boy.

"I'm not blaming you for anything. In fact, you're the only perfect thing about this whole trip," he sulked. "Although, now I might have to break your leg, so you don't think I'm not good for my words."

"You're kind of cute when you're a acting like a brat," Magnus grinned.

"Don't call me a brat. I'm not being a brat. I just wanted to get away from my life for a moment, but having them here reminds me that I have no home when I get back from camping," Alec sighed, and looked at the ceiling of the tent.

"I'm sure your dad will calm down eventually."

"Oh yeah? I bet he's already convinced my mom that I'm an abomination," Alec felt a sting in his eyes, and closed them.

"Surely he wouldn't go that far."

Alec didn't answer. He kept his eyes shut, thinking that Magnus had it easy. His mother was the kindest human being he'd ever met, and Magnus could do whatever he wanted. Still, there was a tinge of hope that his own mother had calmed his father down and convinced him to give Alec a second chance, but the odds were against him, he knew that much. His eyes flew open, when he felt Magnus' hand touch him above the borrowed velvet jeans.

"Magnus, what are you doing?" Nervously, his eyes flickered toward the tent entrance. His sister and friends were just outside. He didn't want to be a stereotypical teenager like Simon and Izzy, who couldn't keep their hands off each other in the wrong settings, but Magnus kept rubbing his hand against Alec's crotch and Alec didn't try to pull his hand away.

"Well, I'm trying to accomplish a few things with this…" he said and rolled a little closer to Alec. "First of all, I'm trying to seduce you, because honestly you are adorably sexy when you get worked up." His hand rubbed harder, and the friction caused the jeans to feel tighter around Alec. "Second of all, I'm trying to distract you, because that's what this trip was all about – distraction. Is it working so far?" Alec could feel Magnus' breath against his face. His heart was in his throat; his pulse ringing in his ears from the excitement the situation gave him. Maybe he did understand the excitement of such situations – the excitement of knowing that they could get caught any minute. Alec offered him a nod, and Magnus kissed his neck leaving warm spots as he trailed his kisses down to his collarbone. When Magnus' hand left his groin he panicked for a second, but realized he just needed to take off his jacket, and Alec's shirt. Before Alec got the chance to get comfortable on the sleeping bag, Magnus' lips crashed against his, and Alec's mouth responded under the other boy's mouth. Alec was clutching at Magnus, desperate for more, desperate to touch him as well, but Magnus grabbed him by the wrists and pulled both of his hands over his head. He lifted his head up a bit, still close enough for Alec to feel his breath on his mouth. The grin on Magnus' face was wicked. "Don't touch me, or there will be consequences," Magnus warned him.

"What? Magnus, no… I…" Alec stuttered and Magnus shut him up with a long intense kiss. His cheeks felt warm suddenly, and he was sure that he was blushing under Magnus' touch. So maybe Alec had been a bit demanding last time they had been intimate, but surely this wasn't payback time?

Magnus held his arms in place with one hand, and undid Alec's pants with the other. Alec could easily get free of his hold, but for multiple reasons he didn't want to – firstly, the consequences could be that Magnus would stop touching him, secondly, although he was desperate to touch Magnus' smooth skin, he also found it exciting that he practically couldn't move most of his upper body. Alec gasped as Magnus' cold hand slid into his boxer briefs. Alec was growing under his touch; he could feel himself getting hard, but Magnus continued to only rub, while not leaning down to let his body touch Alec's. Alec knew it was only to tease him, because though they had only been together like this once before, he knew that Magnus wanted Alec just as badly as he wanted Magnus to touch him. He tried to lift his face up to kiss Magnus, but the other boy leaned away with that wicked grin on his face.

"Magnus, please," he whispered, careful not to let anyone outside the tent know what was going on, although he was pretty sure his hard breathing was giving them away. Magnus pulled back his hand and traced his fingers across Alec's bare skin everywhere, and by each touch Alec felt his body respond with a movement that was cut short by the now firm hold of his hands above his head.

"I'm gonna let go of your hands now, can I trust you won't move them?" Magnus asked, but Alec didn't answer. He didn't want to make a promise he couldn't keep. Magnus' hands explored Alec's upper body, and it was becoming too much for Alec not return the touches. The only way to avoid consequences was for him to capture Magnus instead. Alec grabbed Magnus' shoulders, and before the boy could respond Alec had wrestled him over and was now on top of him.

"No fair," Magnus didn't look disappointed.

"I never said I played fair."

Alec reached down and pulled off Magnus' boxer briefs, and then his own. Magnus gasped at Alec's forcefulness. The way that Magnus had teased him had given him new confidence, and now it was his turn to tease Magnus.

Each sign of pleasure that Magnus showed seemed to magnify Alec's rapture. When Magnus' legs tightened around his waist, Alec moved closer. When Magnus' fingernails trailed patterns over his shoulders, Alec bit down on Magnus' chest. Every other thought seemed to escape his mind completely, resulting in him forgetting that they were only in a small tent. His pulse was ringing in his ears still, and when he cried out Magnus' name it sounded as if he was in a bell jar, but it had probably been louder than that because Magnus made an effort to cover up his mouth. Alec shut his eyes, only hearing his own and Magnus' needy gasps. Where everything was usually dark behind his eyelids, he saw a bright light and in surprise he opened his eyes, wanting to look at Magnus as they finished together. Alec wanted to hold on, to wait for Magnus to come first. Magnus was repeating his name – "Alec," he breathed. "Alec." Magnus' body tightened around Alec. The last 'Alec' was caught in a whimper, and Alec let himself go, the light behind his eyelids exploding, losing the last bit of control and collapsing along with Magnus, burying his face against the other boy's neck.

They were both breathing hard, and Alec felt Magnus' chest rise and fall as he lay on top of him. Alec traced patterns on Magnus' skin once his sight was back to normal.

"I'm falling in love with you, Alexander," Magnus whispered in a voice so low Alec had to look up at him to make sure he had spoken. Magnus waited for a response, his expression more nervous than ever. The feelings that Magnus gave Alec were a kind of pure bliss that he had never in his life even imagined he could get from someone. Still feeling the confidence Magnus gave him he decided to twist his words a little.

"I love you too," and he planted a small kiss on Magnus' lips. Magnus covered the two of them up with the sleeping bags and they fell asleep together.

Alec woke when he heard Jace yell outside the tent, and the morning sun showing through the thin material of the tent.

"_Bees! So many bees! Who the hell left their s'mores on the ground!_"

Alec looked over at Magnus, who was sleeping peacefully in the bright blue sleeping bag. Even bees couldn't ruin Alec's mood today, not even bees.


	8. Chapter 8

**8. Flirtatious Hashtags**

When the two of them got back to Magnus' house, Mrs. Bane was waiting for them in the living room. It seemed she'd heard them coming and had gotten to her feet, planted her hands on her hips and formed her otherwise pretty face into one big dangerous frown. Magnus stopped for a second without breathing as if to see if she was real. He looked at Alec with some worry.

"You know when I said she usually saved up her anger for the big finale? I think she found the trigger to that explosion," he grimaced, and as if on cue Mrs. Bane started yelling.

"MAGNUS 'YOU LITTLE SHIT' BANE!" She composed herself then. "You kidnapped your boyfriend and just left?!"

"You told Izzy, but you didn't tell your mom?" Alec accused.

"I forgot," Magnus shrugged.

"You have no idea how worried I was! I thought you'd left town, runaway or worse gotten hurt somewhere, do you know how many violent homophobes are out there!" Mrs. Bane said in a raised voice.

"I'm sorry, mother. But for your comfort, people wouldn't even know we were a couple when we're out – Alec is very…"

"Magnus, shut up," Alec covered his face with his palm, well aware that Magnus wasn't really helping anything.

"I had to call Alec's parents to know you were safe," Mrs. Bane continued in a calmer tone.

"You what?" Alec panicked.

"Luckily for you guys your sister had left a note for your parents, or your father would've probably send out an entire search team for you."

"Why would he care? He kicked me out?" Alec said, and at that she hit him at the back of his head. "Ouch! Why would you…?"

"He cares. It's time you go home and talk to your father, Alec."

"Mom, it wasn't his idea. It was my idea, you know he was feeling bad, I was just trying to cheer him up," Magnus tried to interfere, and Alec found that it annoyed him. He didn't need Magnus to defend him, even if it was the truth.

"I know, but the mourning period is over. I heard how panicked your father sounded before he had seen the note from Isabelle."

"Oh." Alec didn't know what else to say.

"And if it still doesn't work out between you two, feel free to come back here," she added, as if to say that was the end of the conversation.

Alec's heart was racing when he approached the front steps of the house. He tried to calm himself down, but it didn't take. He needed to make the best of this, no matter what would meet him inside the house.

He entered the hall and went to the kitchen, where his parents and Izzy sat at the kitchen island. His parents both looked pale and serious.

"Thank God you're here, they won't tell me what's wrong," Izzy said with exasperation.

"Sit down, Alec," Maryse said calmly.

"No, I'm good. What's going on?" Alec demanded.

"Your father and I have decided to get separated," she said without much hesitation.

"What?!" Izzy stood up immediately.

"Izzy, calm down." Maryse put a hand on Izzy's shoulder and his sister sat back down.

"I'm moving out, and you can come back here and live with your mother," Robert decided to speak up.

"But this is not why we're getting separated. It has nothing to do with you guys."

"Of course it doesn't, because we're not the ones cheating on you," Alec felt brave suddenly.

Izzy was clenching and unclenching her jaw with anger, but then she stormed out of the kitchen and out of the house.

"I'm sorry, mom," Alec looked at his mother and she gave him what he thought was meant as a smile, but came off kind of half-heartedly. "Let me know when he's out, and I'll come back home." Alec left the kitchen and tried to run after Izzy, but his father caught up to him.

"Alexander. I overreacted, but that doesn't mean I'm not disappointed that you're dating that boy," Robert admitted.

"You didn't even take the time to get to know Magnus, before you decided you were embarrassed about me dating him. He's an amazing and caring person…"

"From how I see it he's bad influence – I hear he throws a lot of parties, _and_ he did make my son skip school," Robert wasn't giving up.

"I'm taking two personal days off, I hear that's acceptable for recently homeless teenagers," Alec said flatly.

"You're not homeless, don't be dramatic, Alec," his father sighed.

"I was two days ago."

Alec's heart was still racing. He'd never thought he would talk to his father like this, and even though he felt like he was in his own right to talk to him this way, it still felt wrong and he didn't like it very much. Usually he avoided conflicts of this sort, but he couldn't avoid his father forever.

"I would like to talk to you when you've calmed down," his father finally said, after a moment of staring where neither of them would back down.

"That depends on what you want to talk about, because if it's still about what a great disappointment I am, I think it would be a waste to calm down first just to get angry again," Alec said, feeling that the word 'angry' didn't exactly describe his feelings of the moment, but he was never the clever one able to put words to his feelings, that was always Jace and Simon.

Robert was quiet for a long moment, and Alec was starting to think that maybe his dad was reconsidering whether he actually wanted to have a calm talk with him after all.

"I want to hear about this boy…"

"Magnus. His name is Magnus," Alec corrected. His father took a deep breath.

"I want to hear about Magnus. I know his mother works with your mom, maybe he's not as bad as I think." It was plain to see the effort it took for his father to say these things. Alec nodded quickly.

"Okay."

"Okay?"

"Okay, let's go somewhere and talk," Alec said, relieved that his father was making an effort at least, even if it was making him uncomfortable. Maybe he would be able to accept it, even respect Alec for standing his ground and owning up to who he was.

…

Clary heard a knock on her door, and someone peeked inside slowly. She put down her sketchbook and sat up straight. Izzy looked upset, as she entered the room carefully.

"Can I come in?" she asked politely, and in a very unlike-Izzy manner.

"Sure," Clary said, her mind trying to work out why Izzy was in her room looking upset. Normally, she supposed, Izzy went to Simon when she was upset. "Simon's not here."

"I know," the other girl shrugged.

"Okay."

Quiet. None of them spoke. Clary was almost afraid she would scare the girl away. Izzy being fragile and sad wasn't something she'd ever considered possible.

"Would you like something to drink? We have lots of different kinds of tea?" Clary suggested. Her mother, being the typical European she was had a certain love for tea.

"No thanks, I'm good."

"Okay, you're obviously not good though. What's wrong?" Clary couldn't take it anymore; the silence was killing her.

"My parents are getting separated." Izzy looked at her own hands.

"What does that mean?"

"It means my dad's moving out."

"Oh. I'm sorry Izzy." Now she just felt more awkward. She felt bad for Izzy – she knew she would be upset if her mother and Luke got separated. But then again, they were very different from the Lightwoods. Clary had never felt comfortable around Izzy and Alec's parents.

"I thought, you know, since you're a child of divorce maybe you would understand?" The hope was clear in her eyes.

"Izzy, I think my situation was a bit different, seeing that I wasn't even born when my mom divorced my father. Luke has always been more of a dad to me," she explained, trying to tread carefully.

"Oh. Yeah, of course. I'm sorry," she said and stood up again. "I didn't mean to compare our situations. I'm just going to go see Simon."

"Okay. Good talk," Clary said and did a thing with her hands, where she sort of made guns out of them by pointing at Izzy, something that her mother would do when she tried to be cool, but really felt awkward. Izzy looked at her sideways.

"At least I can just make out with Simon, when he gets awkward." Izzy grinned and left Clary's room. She fell back on her bed and looked up at the ceiling – why was she so bad with girls?

…

Eventually Alec found Izzy and Simon in the tree house in Simon's backyard. There was very little room left in there, when he arrived.

"You just left?" Alec accused.

"Of course I left, I didn't need to hear any more of it," she sighed.

"Dad tried to have a talk with me." He didn't know why he felt so talkative all of a sudden, it was especially odd since Simon was there, but he supposed he needed someone to talk to and Izzy had always been the person he came to first. The two of them grimaced at the same time.

"Mom had the talk with me ages ago, something about bees…"

"No, not that talk, just _a_ talk. He wanted me to tell him about Magnus, but at some point he asked me what I thought had turned me gay, and I just couldn't deal with the conversation anymore."

"What did you say?" Simon asked with curiosity.

"That I was bitten by a gay spider."

"Really?" Simon smirked.

"Of course not!"

"When did our lives become so complicated?" Izzy sighed dramatically.

"It's supposed to, we're teenagers," Simon offered.

"I wish we could just go camping again," Izzy said dreamily, and she and Simon appeared to share some inside joke that Alec was sure he didn't want to know about. But it got him thinking about the time in the tent, and although it had only been a few hours since he'd seen Magnus, he noticed that he missed him. He felt ridiculous to miss a person like this, and instead he decided to intrude on his sister and Simon like they'd intruded on him and Magnus the day before.

Before the day was over they'd played every board game and card game that Simon owned, which was quite a lot, but they'd had to cut Monopoly short or Izzy and Simon might have killed each other. By the end of the day Izzy and Alec walked home together, only halfway home Alec got a text from Magnus telling him that he missed him.

"What are you smiling at? Is it Magnus?" Izzy figured. Alec eyed her. "Fine, don't tell me what he says, I don't care," she sulked.

"He misses me," Alec admitted.

"Aww!"

"See, that's why I don't tell you," he rolled his eyes.

"Well, you should text something cute back."

"Like what? I don't know how to be cute," Alec said.

"Simon has been using adorable hashtags lately," she shrugged.

"Hashtags?" Alec's eyebrows met in the middle.

"Sometimes he just sends a hashtag with a reminder of something we did together, other times he combine it with an entire text as a sort finish," she explained as they walked along the street.

"Okay?" Alec couldn't help but be a bit interested in this sort of flirting, even though he was old-fashioned in some ways, especially when it came to technology. All his friends were already on Instagram and Twitter by the time he decided a smart phone would be a good idea.

"So first you would obviously have to reply that you miss him too, if that's the case?" Izzy was trying to get him to admit it. By the look on her face he could tell she knew he'd only stayed with them all day to avoid going straight to Magnus' house.

"Of course."

"Then you would have to add a little extra, for example make a reference to the last time you guys had a moment together and then hashtag something to emphasize it," she explained. Alec thought about the night before and the tent, and how Magnus had made him forget that his friends were just outside and he felt his cheeks warm up by the thought of it. Izzy's grin told him that she noticed. "You guys totally did it in the tent last night too, didn't you?" she realized.

"Too? God, Izzy, don't tell me that, it's bad enough when I walk in on you guys!" Alec exclaimed. Why was it so easy for his sister to think of him and Magnus together and so difficult for him to see her with Simon? It probably had something to do with her being the younger sibling, and him just being a regular protective older brother, he thought, but it didn't really help much to rationalize it.

"Don't be so immature about it, I'm becoming a woman, Alec, it shouldn't be a shock to you."

"No, but I don't have to know every detail about it."

"Give me your phone," she held out her hand, and he looked at it for a moment, before she took the phone from him. She typed something into it. "Relax, I'm not going to send it, I'm just writing it down and then you can send it." Alec waited with growing curiosity, before she handed him back his phone and read it in his mind, '_I miss you too, babe. I was just thinking about last night #makingmeblushtoday_'.

"I'm gonna go ahead and erase 'babe', and then I actually kind of like it," he admitted, surprised with himself and his sister. Izzy looked proud of herself as he pressed send. It didn't take Magnus long to answer, and Izzy peeked over Alec's shoulder to read the short text with him, '_Me too #puremagic_'.

"OMG, that's adorable," Izzy said, folding her hands under her chin.

"Yeah, I think I'm just going to go see him," Alec said with hesitation, trying not to sound too obvious about it, but failing miserably.

"You are such a boy!" she exclaimed with exasperation.

"Don't be so immature about it, Izzy, I'm becoming a man, it shouldn't shock you," he grinned, honestly a bit proud of himself. She couldn't help but give a short laugh.

"But what about dinner? Mom is cooking for us," she tried.

"Which she is never really good at anyway. Just make up an excuse for me?" he said, while walking away from her.

Mrs. Bane was the one to let Alec inside the house, and she called out for Magnus to come downstairs.

"Is everything okay with your parents?" she asked.

"I guess you can say that. They're getting separated," Alec said calmly. Magnus appeared behind his mother with a smirk on his face. Mrs. Bane didn't notice him.

"I'm sorry to hear that," the sincerity in her voice pure. Alec had a hard time concentrating, as Magnus was biting his lip and looking up and down at Alec, checking him out and trying to make him crack. Alec had texted Magnus about his parents' separation earlier that day, and so he already knew what he was just telling his mother about.

"Yeah, well at least my mom wants me to live in the house," Alec said, unable to keep from smiling at the idiot behind Mrs. Bane. She turned around to look at her son.

"Magnus!" she exclaimed.

"Sorry, mom," the boy grinned.

"Well, you boys have to find yourself some dinner tonight, I'm going out," she said and grabbed her purse, which seemed to be waiting for her at the kitchen table.

"Where are you going?" Magnus asked, not taking his eyes off Alec.

"Out. You don't have to know everything, Magnus. Goodnight, Alec," she said and left the house. Magnus furrowed his brow.

"She always tells me where she's going, even when she knows I'm not listening?" he mused, and then he seemed to remember that he was about to seduce Alec. He licked his lip, turned on his heels and went up the stairs.

"Where are you going?"

"To my room."

"What about dinner?" Alec followed him up the stairs. He wasn't really hungry.

"I'm thinking dessert first?"

Once Alec entered the purple room, Magnus faced the door with a plotting look across his face. Alec's mind went wild, as it always did when Magnus seemed to be hiding something that would often only amused him and not Alec.

"When you say dessert…" Alec took a step closer to the other boy, suddenly nervous that they were going to do something that involved whipped cream.

"I mean something else entirely," he said and went to his nightstand and found something in the drawer. "I have something for you." He held out a box for Alec and he took it hesitantly. "Don't be nervous, it's not a troll."

Alec opened the box and first he didn't know what he was looking at – it was a somewhat small phallic figure in a blue marbled color. Magnus noticed the confusion in Alec's eyes.

"It's a butt plug," he explained. All blood disappeared from Alec's head, and he looked up at his boyfriend. "Clearly this was a bad idea. I'm sorry, let me put it away –" Magnus stepped forward to take the box away, but Alec stopped his hand with his own.

"No, I just…" Alec hadn't thought they were this far in the relationship, although he must have known Magnus was into toys, especially the ones with a marbled finish. "You just took me by surprise, that's all. I hadn't considered it." Still holding his hand, Magnus looked into Alec's eyes as if they were sharing unspoken words.

"I noticed last night that you prefer to top –" Magnus held up his hand, as Alec was about to object. He preferred for Magnus to be happy. They had tried both ways, and though they hadn't talked about it first or after, Magnus must have noticed the difference in Alec's pleasure. "Don't try to deny it, there's no denying the look on your face last night." Alec felt his cheeks blush. "And actually, I prefer you to top as well, but I also want you to feel good, so I thought we could try this."

"I always feel good when I'm with you," Alec whispered.

"Good answer. We don't have to use it now, maybe it was too soon, and it was dumb of me to assume you came here to have sex." Magnus sat down on the bed. Alec didn't understand the sudden insecurity, and he didn't even remember a time when he'd seen Magnus be insecure. Was he afraid that Alec only liked him for sex? Even after last night?

"Why? Do you only want me because of the sex?" They had been making out half of the time they had spent together, but wasn't that what new couples did?

"No! I didn't mean it like that."

"Then why are you even bringing this up right now? A moment ago you were fine, I'm sorry I wasn't prepared for your… gift, I was just surprised, that's all," Alec felt like he was ranting now and stopped himself.

"I spent an entire day with your friends yesterday, and I just started noticing how different you are around them," Magnus said out of the blue.

"Of course I'm different with my friends, because I'm not in love with them."

"Are you sure?" the other boy looked up at him from under his lashes.

"What?"

"You jumped into a river to save Jace's shoe, and your heart almost stopped beating when his jacket caught on fire. I keep telling myself that, that's just who you are, you would have done that for any of them, but it seems different somehow," Magnus explained, and it felt like a blow to Alec's stomach.

"He's my best friend," he whispered the obvious, and he sensed that it wasn't enough, so he sat down next to him on the bed. "I was in love with him," Alec started explaining. "When I first figured out I was gay, he was there for me all the way. But he's more like a brother to me than anything else. Besides it was only a lake, I wouldn't have jumped into a river for him," he tried to lighten the mood. "I would have jumped into a river for you though?" he offered, when he didn't get a response.

"Right."

"Do you want to know what I've been doing all day?"

"Please, do tell me, Alexander," Magnus sighed.

"I've been cock blocking Simon and Izzy as a revenge," Alec grinned, and a smile formed across Magnus' face.

"Sure," the disbelief was clear in his expression.

"I'm serious. There is not a board game we didn't play today. Monopoly almost ended their relationship, but even I am not that cruel, so we didn't finish that one."

"Okay, so we got that settled, none of us are in this relationship just for sex?" Magnus said it like a question by the end of the sentence. Alec looked up into his eyes, when he answered.

"Definitely not."

"You know, you have to stop eye-fucking me then, you're really not making it easier," Magnus smiled.

"Maybe we should just talk then?" Alec suggested.

"I thought that's what we were doing?"

"It is, and it's nice." Alec lay down on his back and looked at the ceiling, and Magnus joined him.

"Are you hungry?"

"Not really. Simon's mother's snack selection is insane, I've been eating all day."

The two of them just stayed like that for a long time, just talking and only their shoulders touching. They started talking about college, because Magnus had started applying to various universities.

"I really hope I get into NYU, I have a few friends who started there last year," Magnus said. Alec was glad to find that all of the universities Magnus talked about were close to home.

"I wish I was going off to college soon," Alec sighed. Magnus sat up on his elbows.

"Imagine if we both got into NYU, and we could get a small loft in the city?"

Alec looked up into a pair of hopeful eyes, and felt the warmth of them deep inside.

"That sounds nice," he replied. It seemed Magnus couldn't refrain himself from giving Alec a soft kiss – a kiss that quickly evolved into something more passionate. Alec held himself up on one elbow and pulled Magnus closer with the other arm. The kiss intensified and suddenly Magnus' hand was up Alec's shirt, and Alec's hand were pressing the other boy down on him by a soft touch on his lower back. His pulse was racing as he felt for Magnus' soft skin. All Alec's nerves and emotions felt heightened. It was still a wonder to him how every time him and Magnus made out like this it felt more amazing than the last time, and his body responded with even more intensity each time. Maybe talking was good for pre-foreplay. He had heard somewhere that sex was better with someone you loved, and he was starting to believe that now, because every day he was with Magnus he loved him just a little bit more, and every time they were intimate it felt a little bit better, as if the other boy kept finding new spots on Alec's body that he didn't know he had. With every touch his body seemed to arch into Magnus' in a natural flow of motions, while clothes fell onto the ground.

Eventually Alec felt the usual tremble of excitement through his body, as the foreplay progressed. It was at this point, like the night before, that Alec couldn't hold back anymore and he flipped the two of them around in a swift movement to get on top of Magnus. He didn't know why, but he liked the control being on top gave him, as if everything was up to him, even though with Magnus anything rarely was; with Magnus he was never in control of himself.


	9. Chapter 9

**9. My Compliments to the Chef **

"MAGNUS?" Alec called as he entered the Bane house. The door was open, and no one had answered immediately, so he'd just walked in. It had been a few days since his father had moved into a hotel room, and his mother was trying to be busy at work. There was really no difference at home; it was still mostly just Izzy and himself who inhabited the house.

Magnus came down the stairs into the living room with a calm expression.

"What's going on?"

"Your mom brought my mom to a PFLAG meeting last night!" Alec accused, well aware that Magnus probably didn't have anything to do with it. A smirk appeared across his face. Magnus had only met his mother once, but it had probably been enough for him to get a pretty good picture of how Maryse was. "It's not funny! She doesn't say it, but I can tell she's freaked out by all the hippie moms," Alec sighed.

"Are you calling me a hippie, Alec?"

Alec froze. He had thought Mrs. Bane was at work or out, as she usually was by this hour of the day.

"Mrs. Bane, no I didn't… you know what I mean," Alec tried to save it, but couldn't. Fortunately, she didn't look upset about it, but rather amused.

"Your mom is fine," she assured him.

"Her lips were pursed this morning, when I came down for breakfast, and she told me she'd been out with you last night," Alec explained, hoping not to sound too accusingly about it.

"Okay, maybe 'fine' is a bit of a stretch, but she'll come around eventually."

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Bane, but I don't need her to get new excuses for feeling disgusted with me, now that I'm finally back in the house."

"Alec…" Magnus said, and he'd never seen Magnus look so miserable before. It was the last straw, and he felt the pressure of tears, so he left the house before he could embarrass himself further in front of Mrs. Bane.

…

Magnus didn't understand the feelings that now rushed over him. Why would Alec even think that his own mother was disgusted with him? Magnus' own mother must have noticed the change in him, because she put her hand on his shoulder.

"You're shaking, Magnus?"

"I am?"

"You should go talk to him. Make sure he doesn't think like that again, I'm sure you'll be able to convince him that he's wonderful just the way he is," she smiled softly.

Magnus ran outside, but he couldn't see Alec anywhere. He thought about texting him, but then he had an idea – the park bench. He hurried over to the park, but the bench was occupied by an old couple. A new sort of misery rushed over him, he'd thought he would know where Alec had gone, but maybe he didn't know him that well at all. Of course he wouldn't have gone to one of 'their places'. Perhaps he'd gone back to the school? It would be mostly deserted by now.

"Magnus?"

Magnus' heart skipped a beat, and he turned to follow the sound of a voice he knew so well. Alec was standing by another bench, which was slightly hidden beside a bush. His eyes were puffy, and it made him hold his distance. He knew it was ridiculous, but Alec didn't like anyone seeing him cry and touching him would most likely only make it worse.

"Alec, I…" Magnus swallowed, and stepped closer, despite his worries about Alec's feelings. "Why would you talk like that?"

"I didn't mean to be rude to your mother," Alec said and sat down on the bench despairingly. Magnus went to kneel in front of him.

"That's not what I meant. She doesn't care about that, she cares that you would think that way of your mother and of yourself. Please tell me that's not what you think of yourself?"

"That I'm disgusting?" Alec asked, although he knew very well that's what Magnus meant. Magnus hid his face in his palms. He felt a hand brush his arm. "I don't feel disgusting when I'm with you." Now Magnus looked up at his boyfriend. His eyes were glistening.

"Then why…?"

"Because I see the way she looks at me now. She's trying to hide it, but she can't. She doesn't feel comfortable. And you should have heard her when she talked about those parents," Alec explained.

"Alec…"

"I know it will take time for her, and I know she's really trying, just like my dad is trying. But it's just difficult right now," he said, and took Magnus' hand in his. The boy was so beautiful, even with puffy eyes it was only the blue shining through that Magnus noticed. He had sworn to himself weeks ago, when he first realized that he was not only in love with Alec, but he loved him more than he'd ever thought possible, that he would always protect him. But he didn't know how to protect him from this, because that's how it was for a lot of gay people, and if anyone had figured out how to avoid it by now they wouldn't be having this problem.

"How about dinner?"

"I'm not really hungry," Alec sighed.

"No, I mean dinner with your mom and my mom, just the four of us? I know they already know each other, but what if we have a nice dinner just the four of us. No other hippie parents or co-workers, just us," Magnus suggested. Alec was considering it, and the small quirk on his lips told Magnus that he thought it was a good idea.

"Okay."

"Good. I'll be at my best behavior, and your mother will love me by the end of the evening," Magnus promised, and Alec couldn't help but give him a nervous smile. Magnus stood up, because his feet were starting to prickle from the lack of blood flow the position gave him. But he'd only just stretched his legs, when Alec pulled him down to the bench and kissed him, just like that and in the middle of the park! He could feel Alec's hands around his neck, holding him in place so he wouldn't escape his perfect lips. Once Magnus relaxed, Alec forced his mouth open and pressed his tongue against Magnus'. He loved it when his boyfriend was forceful, and he forgot where they were for a second, so he pulled Alec closer by the front of his shirt. Assertive-Alec was the Alec he loved the most, but not the Alec he had fallen in love with. Still, he enjoyed that his presence had helped him dismiss his previous feelings, because Magnus hadn't really done much to cheer him up other than just following him. Carefully he broke off the kiss, still leaning against Alec's chest with only his hands between them.

"Alec, someone might have seen us," Magnus said, remembering the old couple on the other bench.

"I know," Alec smirked. Magnus turned his head to see if the old couple was still there, or if they'd freaked them out. Alec turned his eyes in the same direction. The older couple was smiling at them. Alec sniggered, and sounded a bit embarrassed. Magnus looked back at Alec, who didn't appear sad anymore.

"Alexander, please don't ever change," he whispered. He hadn't thought his words would mean much, but it seemed that to Alec it meant the world to hear those simple words, as he tried to hold back more tears.

"I can't promise that, because eventually we will change," he said and looked back over at the couple. "But that doesn't have to mean my feelings for you will change," he added. Magnus had never thought he could feel this happy, and he couldn't stop himself from burying his face in Alec' shirt, taking in the familiar smell of Alec.

…

Alec had not thought this dinner through when he'd agreed to it. Magnus had that effect on him – he always thought it was a good idea at the moment, but as these ideas came closer to reality he started having doubts. However, his mother did seem to be just as nervous as he was.

"Do I look okay?" she asked Alec. A question she'd never asked him before. He'd just always assumed that his mother was confident enough to wear anything, which she probably also was most of the time. She was wearing black jeans, which seemed almost painted onto her, and a loose black see-through dress shirt on top of a black tank top.

"You look great, mom," he said and forced a smile past his nervousness.

"Bane always dresses so nice, I don't want to look sloppy when I'm going to her house," she said, and Alec couldn't help but roll his eyes. His mother never looked sloppy. She was much like Izzy on that matter – they both looked as if they'd spent hours dressing themselves, but really it was effortless for them.

"I'm sure she wouldn't mind even if you showed up in a tracksuit," Alec assured her. Now Maryse turned to look at her son.

"I only know her work side, but you seem to really like her?"

"She's one of the nicest people I know," Alec admitted. "If you give her and Magnus a chance, I think you'll really like them too," he added, hoping he wasn't pushing it.

"Relax, I already like her, as long as she doesn't take me to any more of those meetings," she said matter-of-factly.

When they arrived, Magnus was in the kitchen and Alec wasn't sure whether to feel comforted by the fact that Magnus was cooking for his mother, or horrified by it. Alec had never tried any of Magnus' food, and whatever he was making it looked complicated. Mrs. Bane showed Maryse around the house, and Alec joined Magnus in the kitchen.

"You didn't say _you_ were cooking?"

"Nervous?" Magnus grinned.

"A little, yeah." Now Magnus turned towards him, and held up something that looked like a sort of mushroom. Alec let him feed it to him, and it was orgasmic. It was unbelievable how something so simple without any sort of significant taste, had turned into something with so much flavor.

"Still nervous?"

"Magnus, that's amazing! Why did you never tell me you could cook?"

"My uncle in Europe is a chef, I've spent every summer there for several years now, and he's taught me a few things along the way," he shrugged. Alec couldn't help but think it was a bit sexy seeing Magnus in an apron, especially when he was this good at what he was doing. He was wearing navy colored dress pants and a casual cashmere sweater, and the professional apron didn't make him look any less sophisticated. "Do you want to help? Or do you just want to stare?"

"I'm good with staring. Cooking has never really been the strong side of my family."

"So? Maybe you would be the exception?" Magnus challenged.

"Okay, if you tell me what to do?"

"First, we need to get you an apron. I see you've dressed up for the occasion, I wouldn't want to ruin what is probably your only suit," Magnus winked.

…

"You have a beautiful home," Maryse said, after she'd been showed around what appeared to be a big apartment from the inside, but what was really a smaller house.

"Thank you. It's mostly furniture that my husband collected over the years."

"I heard about what happened to him, I'm terribly sorry," Maryse said. Stories had gone around at work years ago, when the accident had happened.

"It's been years. But sometimes I think Magnus still blames himself. He was like a father to him."

"Oh, so he wasn't his father?" This was a surprise. Maryse wasn't even sure Alec knew about it.

"Stepfather, but he was my husband through most of Magnus' childhood."

The tragic story of a car accident pressed against Maryse's memory. The car had had no reason to crash according to the news, and somehow the boy had gotten away in time, before the car started to go up in flames. Today it was still somewhat a mystery, and though she didn't like the thought that Alec might not know about the details, she also understood if Magnus had decided not to tell him yet.

Now they heard the two boys laugh in the kitchen, and when she turned to look, she saw her son wearing an apron and helping out with the vegetables – a sight she never thought she would see. He looked so happy. Alec had never been a child who would laugh much, but he was also never a child who had cried much, which she'd only seen as a good thing. Maybe it hadn't been a good thing after all.

"He looks… happy," she said. Mrs. Bane was smiling.

"They compliment each other very well, don't you think?"

Maryse hesitated. She'd long hoped that Alec would find a sweet girl, who would make him smile more than he did, just like she'd found Robert at a young age, but look how that had turned out. They were still young, and she didn't want to see him hurt. Magnus' hand brushed Alec's back, while he told him how to prepare the food.

"Yes, they do."

…

Dinner went better than Alec could have ever hoped for. Only once in a while, when Mrs. Bane brought up the PFLAG meeting did his mother seem to have to compose herself. He wondered what had happened at the meeting that would have upset her, but he decided it would be a bad idea to imagine what happened at those meetings. For all he knew it was a group of parents all in the same boat; it didn't sound much unlike a support group, which usually wasn't a happy place.

"You jumped into the river?" his mother asked, when Magnus told them about the camping trip.

"It was a lake. Magnus, stop calling it a river!"

"You could have gotten a cold?"

"Well, I didn't," Alec smiled, as did his mother while shaking her head. He rarely saw her smile, especially not since his father had moved out.

"This doesn't mean I'm not mad at you for going without telling me first," she warned.

"I'm sorry."

"They're kids, Maryse. They do silly things," Mrs. Bane said. Alec noticed Magnus rolling his eyes.

"How about dessert?" Magnus stood up and started clearing the table.

"Did you make that yourself as well?" Maryse wondered.

"Yes, I did. It's rose panna cotta."

Alec didn't even know Magnus had made rose panna cotta, which seemed too good to be true. His mother looked at Alec inquiringly.

"You don't like panna cotta?" Magnus asked.

"No, it's my favorite," she admitted.

"Oh, well I hope I didn't mess it up then," Magnus said and went into the kitchen. Alec cracked a nervous smile, praying that it was as delicious as the main course.

They all waited patiently for Maryse to try the dessert, and when she finally smiled everyone breathed again.

"This is delicious, Magnus," she said politely. Alec felt Magnus' hand on his leg under the table. This night could not have gone any better, he thought.

"Thank you so much for dinner, Magnus. It really was delicious," his mother said, as the dinner was over. She turned towards Mrs. Bane.

"Please come again sometime," she said.

"I would love to. Alec, are you coming?" she asked. He looked at Magnus for a second, and then he walked after his mother. He stopped her just outside the house.

"Is it okay if I stay here tonight? It is a weekend." It was the first time he'd asked permission, but he felt like it was the appropriate way to ask her for her approval.

"Sure. I guess I can see why you like him so much. What I'm trying to say is, you could have done worse," she admitted. It was enough approval for now, and he was almost certain that she liked Magnus.

"Thanks," he said and kissed her cheek, which seemed to surprise her, but she didn't say anything. "It means a lot to me that you agreed to this dinner," he added. She brushed her fingers through his hair, like she'd done so many times when he was younger.

"You're growing up too fast. I know you're afraid to talk to your dad and me, but I do want to hear about your plans. I want to hear where you want to go to college, and I want to hear about your camping trips," she said. "I feel like a fool, when I have to go your boyfriend's dinner party to hear that you've started thinking about college."

"You're not a fool, mom."

"I know you don't think that, but that's how I feel sometimes. I'll see you tomorrow?" she said, and walked off.

Alec went back inside, and Magnus and his mother were cleaning up.

"Let me help you with that," he said and took off his blazer.

"Yeah, we'll take care of it, mom."

Mrs. Bane smiled at the two of them, she put her hands on Alec's cheeks for a second and then she went upstairs.

"Your mom seemed to have a good time?" Magnus said, as he placed the dishes in the dishwasher.

"I don't think I've seen her smile like that in months," Alec admitted.

"That's good, right?"

"And I think she actually likes you."

"I'm not sure if I should be hurt by your surprise?" Magnus narrowed his eyes. Alec took his hand and kissed his fingers.

"She rarely shows if she likes anyone, that's why I'm surprised. She seems to have accepted you though," he said, while studying Magnus' hand.

"That's good enough for me," Magnus smiled. "I'm going to hurry this up, so I'll have to borrow my hand for a moment, but then you can have it back afterwards," he said and took his hand back. Alec helped him clean up the rest, and it didn't take long, before they could go back to Magnus' room. Alec went to the bathroom to brush his teeth with the toothbrush he'd gotten back when his father first kicked him out. When he came back Magnus was in his pajamas pants and nothing else, which was a rare beauty, Alec thought to himself.

"I'll just go brush my teeth," Magnus said and went into the bathroom, while Alec went to take off his own clothes and slip under the covers. Magnus must have taken his time, because Alec was almost asleep when he felt a cold hand brush over his stomach. He held out his arm so that Magnus could lie against him and rest his head on Alec's arm. Alec had been under the impression that they were going to sleep, but Magnus seemed to have a different idea. He kept brushing his stomach and it was a good thing that Alec wasn't ticklish or the soft gesture would have been an entirely different sensation.

"What are you doing?" he whispered against Magnus' hair.

"I'm just enjoying your abs, is that okay?" Magnus said, and moved down a bit so his head was at the same level as Alec's chest.

"Be my guest," Alec chuckled. Alec sucked in the air in front of him, when he felt Magnus tongue against his nipple. He had hoped for more when Magnus had started touching him, but he hadn't expected more, so it came as a surprise when the touching was now both hands, lips and tongue. It was an odd mixture of feelings since his hands were still cold, yet his kisses were warm against his skin. For once Alec made an effort not to take control and just enjoy the caresses from his boyfriend. Though it was impossible to not move with the touches, he did stay underneath Magnus and enjoyed how his boyfriend took care of him, because that's what he had needed after a long week of family drama – he had never needed attention from anyone before, but he needed it from Magnus now, and Magnus was very good at giving him undivided attention. Alec felt the excitement of the light touches bubble under his skin. Magnus was only just warming up, when he decided he needed to put on some music.

"What are you doing?" Alec wondered as Magnus reached for the remote control and turned on the stereo.

"Your breathing is getting kind of loud, and I'm not even halfway done with you," Magnus bit his lower lip. Alec had an idea, and it made his heart slam against his chest. "Don't be nervous, I'm not going to do anything that'll make you scream." Magnus must have noticed the change.

"Do you still have that butt plug?" Alec wondered. Now Magnus smirked and reached his arm over to his drawer.

"Do you want to try it?"

"I want you to try it," Alec said.

"You want me to top?"

"I want you to top." Alec chewed his lip, hoping he wasn't demanding too much. In a swift move Magnus had removed Alec's boxers, and he felt Magnus' warm mouth. Alec's eyes rolled back and he arched his back. He tried to control his breathing, but Magnus was trying new things and it became impossible to breathe normal. Some kind of soft, yet loud, music was playing over their moans and gasps. Names came out with every breath – "Alec!" "Magnus!" "Al-", Alec clutched at Magnus, his nails boring into his skin and Magnus collapsed on top of Alec, leaving small kisses all over Alec's skin for a moment.

"That thing is highly underrated," Magnus finally admitted, though Alec had already known from the look on his boyfriend's face through every thrust.

"So that was alright?" Alec grinned.

"That was beyond alright."


End file.
